Tag Team Gauntlet Match: Poison Sawada JULIE & Rion Mizuki vs. Soma Takao & Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie vs. Hikaru Sato & Michael Nakazawa vs. Hiroo Tsumaki & Isami Kodaka
One thing DDT loves is their gauntlet matches. Falls & submissions eliminate the team, then outcomes the next team. Last team left wins. Simple rules for an unsimple promotion. The opening match between Ishii/Irie & Kodaka/Tsumaki was cool. Tsumaki had some neat kicks while Ishii and Irie focused on suplexes. Rion Mizuki and Poison Sawda JULIE (former KO-D Champion) looked funky in their Power Ranger outfits. They don’t last long but Mizuki doing a power punch popped me. And of course, Sato and Nakazawa upstage them with their attires. A nurse's uniform for Nakazawa and a ladies swimming costume for Sato. There is some decent comedy mixed in with the wrestling. Sato keeps it serious generally but he shares baby oil with Nakazawa and then spits it in Ishii’s face. The finishing combo with Sato’s ankle lock and a mandible claw with a pair of undies is exactly what I needed from this pairing. Things get serious when Sakaguchi, along with the original “All Red Everything” Soma Takao, show up. Sakaguchi and Sato have some awesome exchanges on the mat. Sato traps Sakaguchi in a Guillotine which Sakaguchi escapes and then attempts a wild downward stomp. The match takes a downpoint when Takao and Nakazawa come in but then we get more Sakaguchi and Sato nailing each other with some great, stiff strikes, although there is an awkward irish whip into an armbar transition in there. Takao does a funny Boma-Ye impression and hits a neat leg drop to end the match and win. The match was a fun opening bout. Some neat match-ups with nothing dwelling too long. Everyone got some spots in and that was that. ***1/4
DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title Royal Rumble Match: DJ Nira (c) vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Gorgeous Matsuno vs. Touru Owashi vs. Daichi Kakimoto vs. Tomomitsu Matsunaga vs. Mio Shirai vs. Akito vs. Ken Ohka vs. Yuzuki Aikawa vs. Batten Tamagawa vs. Hiroshi Fukuda vs. NOZOMI vs. Yoshihiko
Fujiwara acting like an old dirty man you’d see in adult videos when it came to Aikawa was perversely entertaining. Maybe I wouldn’t have found it funny if it was anyone other than the super serious Yoshiaki Fujiawara. I won’t say what he did (mostly because I’m not sure how to describe it) but he gave a real dirty look and he looked sleazy doing it. Fujiwara kept with the comedy with the final two coming down to him and YoshihikoFujiwara played it really well, stomping on the head after giving it CPR and then ripping the arm out, literally. Awesome finish. Good Rumble. ***1/2
Konosuke Takeshita Debut Match: El Generico vs. Konosuke Takeshita
The 17 year old Rookie making his debut in Budokan Hall, awesome. They definitely had plans for Takeshita to become the ace, to take over from HARASHIMA. Him against El Generico is the perfect match for him because Generico is so great, he could get a good match out of anyone in his prime.
And for a match to showcase both Takeshita and Generico, this was done really well. There were a few notes that they needed to hit and it was done well, such as the arm wringer/ kip-up/arm-drag opening exchange. Takeshita shows off some nice skills but Generico uses his quick, fast movements sto win the exchange. Generico hits some chops and they bring out a nasty bruise on Takeshita’s chest. I guess that was bound to happen when you have a small body with not much muscle. Takeshita makes use of his frame though. He hit an awesome dive over the top rope and he set Generico up with a jumping cutter via a quick roll out of the corner. Takeshita bumped and sold throughout the match. He landed nastily on his neck after a scary Michinoku Driver from Generico. And he takes the BRAINBUSTAAAAH like a champ. Good debut match from the lad. ***1/2
Football Ten Man Tag Team Match: Akira-waku FC (Antonio Honda, Tanomusaku Toba, Yasu Urano, Yoshiko & Yuji Hino) vs. Tokatsu FC (Daisuke Sasaki, Hoshitango, Masa Takanashi, Tetsuya Endo & Tsukasa Fujimoto)
The rules are that there are two halves. Both are five minutes long. In order to score goals, you have to pin the other team. Whoever has the most goals, wins. If it’s a draw then a penalty shootout will be done to determine the winner. A bizarre match. The tag action was only really okay. The key magic was the penalty kick. That’s where the action was going to be. **
KO-D Tag Team Title Match: Homoiro Clover Z (KUDO & Makoto Oishi) (c) vs. MIKAMI & Tatsumi Fujinami
Love the Dragon still being over as fuck. DDT Fans paid their respects. And Fujinami looked okay. His movement isn’t there but his execution of the dragon sleeper, screw, etc were fine. Naturally MIKAMI took most of the offence and bumps for his team. Oishi and KUDO did a fine job on the offensive, cutting off MIKAMI well and solidly working as a team to break him down. Fujinami bringing a ladder in was amusing and the fans liked it. And there were some great aerial dives off the ladder from MIKAMI and Fujinami for the finish which MIKAMI and Fujinami surprisingly won. Awesome! Good for them. A good tag match in the grand scheme of things. It worked well within the limitations of some in the match. ***1/4
Handicap Weapon Rumble Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Sanshiro Takagi
If you’re a DDT fan, you’re familiar with Takagi and the Weapon Rumble Match. It's basically a Rumble match but weapons come out. Only this time, it’s only Takagi that gets weapons, not Suzuki.Some of the weapons were hilarious like Yuzuki Aikawa coming out and distracting Suzuki with her body, taking pictures with him. Aizawa, poor her, took a slap for her troubles. The Second Sanshiro Takagi was funny as well. The highlight of the weapons was the entire Muscle Army coming down to help Takagi and Suzuki beating Muscle Sasaki up, sending them scattering to the back. That was pretty epic, if I say so myself. Suzuki locking on the Fujiwara Armbar just before Fujiwara came out was a great touch. The only man Suzuki may be worried against, his trainee. He doesn’t hold back on the stiff strikes either. I had a heck of a time watching this entire match. Takagi made great use of his comedy spots and Suzuki being so serious in contrast just makes it all the more hilarious. The serious stretch of wrestling near the end was good as well. Great match. Sanshiro Takagi even cuts a fake retirement promo after the match. He is awesome, isn’t he? He gets wrestling and what I want from it. ****
Hardcore Tag Team Match: Ryuji Ito & Shuji Ishikawa vs. HARASHIMA & Togi Makabe
Holy shit. HARASHIMA blonde. I don’t like it. He looks like a scummy dude from Freedoms. I guess that makes sense in the match though. The match is a pretty action packed brawl. They waste no time using the chairs and assorted weapons around the ring. HARASHIMA gets bloody fast and the deathmatch duo takes advantage - I know I said I don’t like the hair but a bloody face plus the hair is always a great look. Ito smashing a chair into the forehead was a total dick move, and he doesn’t redeem himself with those chair shots to the back either. Makabe puts in a shift as well. He is known for not always being up to his best but he knows he is in Budokan and he wrestles like it. He lays in the forearms when against Ishikawa, who replies with headbutts. HARASHIMA was a superb underdog, taking the brunt of the offence then working for the comeback. His selling of the weapon shots was great. He levels Ito and Ishikawa with weapon shots of his own. His offence was full of aggression and poise. Damn, he was good in this match. This was such a good match. ***3/4
Danshoku Dino vs. Invisible Man
This was good in parts but too long. And the long pauses hurt the match. Sorry Dino but this wasn’t good. I got bored real fast. Dino needs someone to work with in order to make his schtick work and an invisible man isn’t that guy.
KO-D Openweight Title Match: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Kenny Omega
Golden Lovers Explode!!! The history behind this reaches a lot of fans' hearts, clearly. Kenny comes in for a tour, has a well received match with Ibushi, he then teams with him and the rest is history. Funnily enough, most of their run in DDT is seemingly spent apart from each other but there is something always special when they do team together. But now, they are against each other once again. In Budokan Hall, for the KO-D Openweight Title.
I was wondering if the match would hold up or not. Considering both wrestlers have peaked a little higher than this in recent years. However I think it’s improved upon rewatching it because Ibushi’s performance stood out so much more than it did last time. I think Kenny was really good in the match. He took a hell of a lot of bumps - scary ones. And he had some cool sequences as well. But I think the initial work on the arm was kind of standard-ish. It’s mostly thrown away in the long term but it doesn’t really look good in the moment either. Except for a few flat kicks to the shoulder that looked like they hurt. When Ibushi starts getting in more offence and the match begins to escalate and escalate into an all out bomb fest, then the match starts hitting all the greatness that the match is praised for. Kota Ibushi was a god in the match, like I’ve already said. Ibushi carries most of the great moments of the match with beautifully executed aerial moves that have a great blend of grace and recklessness whenever he leaves his feet. His standing corkscrew lands hard on with all the pressure on Omega’s whip. His kicks are the same as well. He kicked Omega in the throat more than once, which was such a dick move. Ibushi goes even wilder when they head further in the crowd and hits a moonsault off the stands - something that got him banned from Budokan for years. From that point forward, the match turned into less of the Kota Ibushi show and more even with Omega hitting more death defying offence as well. His electric chair into a german off the top rope was outright insane. Ibushi powers through however and one ups him with an amazing springboard hurricanrana off the top rope to the outside floor. My favourite moment of the match was Ibushi nailing Omega with punches during a strike exchange, and then no-selling an Omega snap suplex, smiling at him and kicking him in the face. I can imagine the no selling will annoy some, and I don’t blame them, but Ibushi makes it work with his heart and insane drive. And to cap off all the incredible risk taking bumps this match has, Ibushi throws Omega with reckless abandonment, spiking him with a Phoenix-Plex on the top rope and then hitting a Phoenix splash to finally get the three. It’s a wild match. A total spectacle with one outstanding effort from Ibushi. ****1/2
Best To Worst:
DDT Nippon Budokan Peter Pan 2012 was a success. Quality, drawing (it sold out all seats available) and setting up for the future with two Sumo Hall shows announced for next year. Good quality matches up and down the show. [Best To Worst] Kenny Omega vs Kota Ibushi - The Golden Lovers explode with an all out war with death defying stunts [****1/2]. Minoru Suzuki vs. Sanshiro Takagi - Tremendous comedy spots with Aikawa coming out and distracting MiSu with her body, Fujiawara coming out, Muscle Sakai, etc. The serious parts when needed were really good as well, albeit brief ones [****], Ryuji Ito & Shuji Ishikawa vs. HARASHIMA & Togi Makabe - The match is a pretty action packed brawl. They waste no time using the chairs and assorted weapons around the ring. HARASHIMA gets bloody fast and the deathmatch duo takes advantage. Makabe puts in a big shift as well. His charisma shines through heavily in this one [***3/4], DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title Royal Rumble Match - Fujiwara was MVP here. Total sleazeball when he comes to Aikawa and her breasts, awesome when he came to the final showdown with Yoshihiko [***1/2], El Generico vs. Konosuke Takeshita - A really good, promising debut match for the 17 yr old Takeshita. Generico shows him the ropes with stiff chops and some heavy bombs [***1/2], KUDO & Makoto Oishi vs. MIKAMI & Tatsumi Fujinami - Fujinami looked really decent thanks to Oishi’s selling. KUDO/Oishi were solid in working on top with MIKAMI taking the majority of the bumps for his team [***1/4], Tag Team Gauntlet Match - A fun opener. Sakaguchi vs Sato parts were awesome. [***1/4], Football Ten Man Tag Team Match - Okay action. The Penalty shootout is funny though - [**]. Danshoku Dino vs. Invisible Man - This was good in parts but too long. And the long pauses hurt the match. Sorry Dino [NR]
Comments
Post a Comment