HARASHIMA & Takeshi Masada vs. Hikaru Machida & Soma Takao
This is my first look at Takeshi Masada and I thought he looked good. He’s not the best rookie ever but he’s solid and didn’t have the awkward foot work/body positioning that a lot of rookies have in their first year. Also HARASHIMA’s greatness shines when put against outsider talents, like a Shinya Aoki (MMA fighter) or Hikaru Machida (Kickboxer) and he puts the match together in such a way that they fit into the rhythm of pro wrestling really well. HARASHIMA works Machida’s exposed leg, immediately putting Machida into that Pro Wrestling role, the classic face in peril. Machida is able to get some offence against the young Masada but he was completely at HARASHIMA’s mercy, almost. Machida was able to test his kicks, even kicking HARASHIMA in the front but HARASHIMA brushed it off with a brutal kick to the face. Soma Takao was fine. He is the veteran guy of his team and has to get the momentum back for his team, which he does, before tagging out again. He doesn’t do much though. Machida and Masada have some awesome exchanges in the closing stretch. Machida does some neat kickboxing combos to knock Masada out cold to close out the match. If you’re a fan of the old DDT veteran, Tanomusaku Toba, I’d check this out. ***1/2
KO-D Openweight Title Match: Kazusada Higuchi (c) vs. Yukio Sakaguchi
Somewhat disappointing, I thought this was good when the momentum was kept instead of stalling. The match had a nasty habit of disrupting the match flow to stop and allow hard strike exchanges, which stopped the match from really grabbing me. Sakaguchi’s submission work was solid and his strikes were capable of bringing Higuchi down to earth but Higuchi’s offence felt static and one note. Not the best performance from someone I consider one of the more consistent highlights of the year. ***
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