DDT King Of DDT 2020 1st Round 08/08/2020
Makoto Oishi vs. Chris Brookes
This was pretty cool. Oishi showed off his grappling chops and used Brookes’ long legs against him. The mat-wrestling was simple but it was interesting as Oishi used any type of leverage that he could to get the advantage, pulling Brookes’ jeans to get a roll up at one point. Brookes defended well and had some good time to control himself but he eventually got caught with a sick Haas of pain. ***1/2
T-Hawk vs. Kazuki Hirata
Unfortunately, Hirata only seems to work seriously when the King Of DDT Tournament comes around which is a shame because he always delivers in the matches. And this was another example of that. They work a great fast match built around counters and control exchanging moves. The flow is super quick and perfectly timed. T-Hawk lays in his chops and Hirata throws punches in response. Awesome match. ***1/2
Minoru Tanaka vs. Soma Takao
What a smartly worked match this was. Tanaka was the veterean and wrestled liked it. He controlled the pace and where the action went. Loved the spot where Soma was pushing Tanaka into the corner but Tanaka used the ropes to lock on a wrist lock before the ref broke it up. Soma Takao was really impressive working from beneath either. Loved the kip-up/enziguri spot from him. ***1/2
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Naomi Yoshimura
This honestly blew me away a bit. Yoshimura took a stiff DDT on the apron a few minutes into the match and that began the suffering for him. Yoshimura took a violent beating. Takeshita rocked him with stiff strikes and impactful bombs throughout the match. Takeshita leveled Yoshimura with a lariat off the top rope which was insane. Takeshita looked so dominant which is a breath of fresh air for modern aces who mostly work from beneath. He won decisively but Yoshimura benefited from staying alive and sticking out the relentless machine that was Takeshita. ***1/2
Akito vs. Tetsuya Endo
A strong main event between these two. Akito has notably been itching to face Endo in a main event and he pulled it off when it was finally given to him. His work on Endo’s leg was superb as expected. Loved all the submissions that involved bending the leg and body itself in ungodly ways. Endo didn’t seem to have an answer for it at the end. He pulled out some of his normal offence but Akito caught him out time and time again and it eventually paid off for Akito. ***1/2
DDT King Of DDT 2020 2nd Round 09/08/2020
Makoto Oishi vs. T-Hawk
Loved the clash of styles. T-Hawk with his big power/strength based offence against Oishi’s submission, trap-laying offence. Oishi is quite small so he got launched several times by T-Hawk’s suplexes and slams. But there were some cool counters where Oishi was able to wrap around T-Hawk’s body and gain leverage into a pin or a submission. A quality match. ***1/4
Daisuke Sasaki vs. Shinya Aoki
Love these Aoki matches. Sasaki is pretty underrated on the mat but Aoki controls his matches with ease and makes it very compelling to see how long the opponent will last. Even the finish where Aoki pins Sasaki’s shoulders to the mat but taps Sasaki out with a double wrist lock before the ref could count to two. Good match. ***
Minoru Tanaka vs. Shunma Katsumata
A brilliant match built around Minoru Tanaka attacking the leg of Shunma and working it over the whole match. Tanaka was superb I thought. His initial assault on the leg and the following kicks to the knee joint were great. There were tons of extra snap in his dropkicks and his submissions were pretty snug. Shunma proved his versatility once again by working really well on defence. His Brock Lock submissions were great hope spots and allowed Shunma time to make a comeback. I loved the selling of the leg as well. Shunma is very audible in his screams and the intimate atmosphere increases it tenfold. The finish to the match was an excellent way to end the match. Not only was the drama in the figure four milked for all its worth but Tanaka following it up with heavy kicks to the left knee and then transitioning into the rolling knee bar was so ruthless. Tanaka is a Fujiwara student at heart, and it showed. Credit to Shunma for an excellent performance from beneath. ***3/4
HARASHIMA vs. Kazusada Higuchi
I can still hear the sound of the chops and kicks connecting even after the match. It was pretty sickening to watch. Most strike exchanges cause the strikes to get lessened as it goes on but they took their time, went at a deliberate pace, valuing velocity and precision above anything else. The rest of the match was pretty crafty and smart in how it was laid out. Higuchi used his weight to move HARASHIMA around while HARASHIMA would look for gaps to tie Higuchi up and pick him apart. Good for Higuchi in getting the win. This was super good. ***3/4
DDT King Of DDT 2020 3rd Round 10/08/2020
T-Hawk vs. Yuki Ueno
Ueno’s not had a great tournament as far as interesting matches, but this was definitely interesting. These two meshed together super well. There was tons of clear chemistry and fire in their exchanges. Even in their brief elbow exchange, there was a competitive spirit. Ueno is a flashy wrestler who loves to hit risky moves, bump around and sell and T-Hawk is perfect for that. The targeting of the back early on was awesome. T-Hawk was ruthless with his punches to the kidney area. They worked their counters beautifully along with the rest of the match - Ueno counted a powerbomb attempt with a rana and then attempted aspear only for T-Hawk to nail Ueno with a knee to the face. The punch to the neck to a struggling Ueno and the Night Ride finish was a good explanation point finish. T-Hawk looked dominant while Ueno was still fighting until the end. ***1/2
Akito vs. Shinya Aoki
I both hate and love that DDT doesn’t book either guy against good mat-wrestlers often enough because it makes matches like these special in their own way. The match kicked off like Aoki matches do, a quick tap out attempt but Akito caught him with a roll up making Aoki know it’s not going to be the same match like he had with Yuki Ino and Daisuke Sasaki. Aoki stays in control for most of the match but Akito works well on the defensive and gets some time on top himself. Akito turning a ring of saturn into a bow-legged heel hook was a great example of Aoki finding himself in trouble and having to end up with an escape. Aoki tried to do the same to Aoki almost immediately but Akito countered it into a cross arm-breaker, forcing Aoki to reach for the ropes. This was classic counter wrestling with some funky submissions and great transitions from move to move. Beautiful finish as well with Akito catching Aoki out with some indescribable submission before rolling him up for the three. ***1/2
Minoru Tanaka vs. Tetsuya Endo
Tanaka follows up the Shunma Katsumata match with another really good showing. Again, attacking the leg. Endo couldn’t do much to defend against though, unlike Shunma, so Tanaka had more free reign. I don’t think anyone expected Endo to tap however. Endo’s selling wasn’t that strong but he blended his offence really well with Tanaka’s where they set up cool counters here and there. The rolling knee bar was a constant in this match. Tanaka also got some neat nearfalls like from the diving foot stomp from the top rope. Another really good match for the small setting. ***1/2
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kazusada Higuchi
This was a brilliant example of heavyweight wrestling in a company that has a ton of smaller, technical wrestlers. This had a mix of counter wrestling mixed with heavy slams and big, fast striking. The story of the match was Takeshita just being able to keep that step ahead of Higuchi by not only is he a tad quicker, but stronger as well. Takeshita at one point deadlift Higuchi from a suplex position after the two had an awesome struggle, similar to Riki Choshu matches in the 80s, and planted Higuchi on the floor. Higuchi, to his credit, was so great in being able to absorb the stiff lariats and heavy german suplexes and manifest it into a short, but very exciting comeback to get the win. His selling was brilliant towards the finishing stretch. Higuchi’s Buchikamashi Charge (Running Tackle) looked brutal. He fucking leveled Takeshita in the jaw for the finish. Higuchi put a ton of power in his gutwrench powerbomb and the height he gets on the chokeslam was incredible. Higuchi getting the biggest push not only beating HARASHIMA but Takeshita too. Both the old and current aces of the promotion. ****
Comments
Post a Comment