DDT King of DDT 2020 Round 1

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
El Lindaman vs. Yukio Naya - 3/10

Lindaman tried to sneak a spay can in his attire, and we all know his attire only consists of trunks and boots.

This was bad, not even Lindaman could save it, Naya is a charisma void, he actually sucks charisma out of the room. This being the biggest size difference in the tournament, it was a lot of big dude vs small dude stuff, with Lindaman having trouble to move Naya, but it all led to the big spot where he picks him up for the Deadlift German and fails, and so Lindaman has to tape up Naya's legs to get the roll up pin. Fortunately, this is where Naya's tournament stops.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Toru Owashi vs. Seigo Tachibana - 5.5/10

This had the smartest start to match I've ever seen by a referee. Seigo jumped Owashi and choked him out with his jacket, and so the referee immediately started the match so he could start the 5-count, instead of waiting for Seigo to be done and Owashi ready.

This was a bit of a hoss fight, but Seigo is too green and didn't really go at Owashi that hard, so aside from some early offense, this was close to just being a squash. Without the brackets in front of me, Owashi I can see going long in the tournament.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Antonio Honda vs. Danshoku Dino - Dud

Another bad & short match, but given the wrestlers, this was exactly what it would had been. Honda got hurt during the entrance, so he tried to tell the Gon The Fox story, but Dieno recovered, hit a piledriver, traded strikes, and Dieno eventually won with two moonsaults.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Kazusada Higuchi vs. Mizuki Watase - Squash

The crowd has been really quiet tonight, and the chops that Higuchi landed were loud AS FUCK! This was just Higuchi beating the shit out of Watase, who really just got a couple of strikes and a German in. I knew Higuchi was winning 100%, but I figured that they'd give Watase a fighting chance since he's Akiyama's protege right now.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Nobuhiro Shimatani vs. Yuki Ueno - 7/10

I think we're done with the rushed matches, because this was pretty good and got some good time. Shimatani reminds me so much of Noam Dar, if Noam Dar was a better wrestler.

This was mostly back and forward, all action. Nobu went after the head, while Ueno mostly worked all he could, mostly with showy offense. Ueno won with a BME. Ueno is coming off a loss vs Endo, so I can't see him winning so soon, I do expect he will make it far in the tournament, and this win was a nice way to start it off.

The more I think about it, Ueno would had been a perfect contender to win the whole thing if they had kept this title shot until afterwards. He had pins over Endo, but never anything official, so this could had been a big great deal for him to cement him as the 4th guy that roams around the title, but not really single him out that much from Nautilus.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Daisuke Sasaki vs. Tomomitsu Matsunaga - 5/10

As usual, Sasaki sucks so much that he makes the match dangerous for himself and his opponent. This also was way too long and slow. They had a submission based match, with Sasak trying to mat wrestle, and while he did win with a deep Crossface, getting there was a drag. Matsu isn't a super exciting guy either, so we knew he wasn't winning and him on offense was the best this match could offer.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Shunma Katsumata - 6.5/10

This is the first match of the night in which I'm actually intrigued about who takes the win, Sakaguchi has been getting over thanks to ERUPTION, but Katsumata has been all over the place for the last couple of shows. I really could see either go somewhat far. Sakaguchi's look, strikes, and submission game are perfect for a heel contender down the line, but Sakaguchi is the perfect underdog with actual chance at winning.

Match saw Sakaguchi dominate from the start, he was connecting every kick, while Katsumata's approach was trying to get a roll up since he knew he couldn't out-strike or out-grapple Sakaguchi in this or any other universe. After about 15 roll up attempts, one just managed to work and Katsu won. Sakaguchi was surprised, but not angry, he actually put over Katsu at the end. Good storytelling and it lasted as much as it had too.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
HARASHIMA vs. Mad Paulie - 6.5/10

This was really disappointing, this is the Tanahashi vs Fale of DDT, but it surely didn't live up to the standard, and surprisingly, it was HARASHIMA who wasn't on his game tonight, he was botching, he was out of position, and while he had it easier just being base, Paulie did work his big man style to the dot.

Story here was that big unstoppable dude match, with HARASHIMA going after Paulie's legs to bring him down, while Paulie was the guy that had trouble catching you, but once he did, he would slam and hurt you. Finish saw HARASHIMA finally bring Paulie down to his knees and deliver two Shining Wizards. This could had been better.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Yuki Ino vs. Shinya Aoki - Dud, but the Perfect Dud!

I loved the execution of this. Ino tried to get the quick win, instead of posing for his entrance, he went straight for the Spear and pin attempt. Instead of doing his haka, he went straight for the elbow drop and pin attempt, but Aoki, managed to reverse the pin into an armbar and submit him immediately, because, well, Aoki is fucking Aoki!

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Makoto Oishi vs. Chris Brookes - 7/10

Ok, this is gonna be the upset of the night surely, Oishi submitted Brookes, the reigning Universal Champ with a Fujiwara Knee Lock. The crowd reacted to the upset too, I don't think anyone expected this, but given Watase's performance, Oishi had to represent papa Akiyama.

The match was great, a mix of striking and submission. Brookes was trying to go for the Octopus Stretch early on, but Oshii kept reversing it, so it all became a striking battle until Oishii managed the Fujiwara and Brookes wasn't able to escape it.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
T-Hawk vs. Kazuki Hirata - 6.5/10

I can only imagine what went through T-Hawk's mind during Hirata's entrance. This was good, but it felt like it took too long for T-Hawk to be done with Hirata, he gave so much to him in this match, made Hirata look legit. Match saw Hirata start strong, maybe surprising T-Hawk who had underestimated him

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Minoru Tanaka vs. Soma Takao - 7.5/10

These two had a match late last year during the Grand Prix, that I remember being 'ok'. That one lasted about 15 minutes, whereas this one was about 10 or so, and yet, it felt like it took longer for this match to pick up. It started really slow, the first five minutes were slow with Tanaka working Takao's arm. Afterwards, it became a good striking battle until Tanaka won with the Minoru Special. This could had been great if only they started the match on second gear already.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Naomi Yoshimura - 7/10

NOOO!!!! Yoshimura shaved his head and lost the color!! I FUCKING HATE IT!!!

Yoshimura was way more aggressive than normal, he went after Takeshita during the opening bell, he went for apron piledrivers, he kept offense for about 2/3s of the match, and then Takeshita came back to life and started dropping Yoshimura with everything he had, eventually winning with a Deadlift German.

Post-match - Naomi seemed a bit heartbroken for losing. I'm smelling a heel turn soon, likely killing Nautilus and allowing Ueno to go singles.

King Of DDT 2020 First Round Match
Akito vs. Tetsuya Endo - 8.5/10

Match of the night easily, for every match that felt short tonight, it's because these two were given time to do their thing. Akito worked Endo's arm, while Endo worked Akito's legs. The action was back and forward, but Endo did feel slightly more in control for a while when he worked over Akito, but indeed, towards the end, Akito's comeback was strong. At the end, Akito locked up Endo is such a pretzel that Endo didn't even have hands to submit with.

So the champion has been eliminated in the very first round. I guess we're not getting Kenny Omega as Endo's challenger after all. At this point, I expect Akito to make it all the way to the finals.

Post-match - Akito cut a promo saying that he's done looking for Endo's love, but rather, he'll stay in his mind, and the way to do it, is for Endo to hate him. He said that tonight, he wanted to prove that becoming EVP of Cyber Fight doesn't mean he's done chasing the KO-D Heavyweight Championship.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Not the greatest show. They packed up 14 matches in this show, and arguably, a lot of these talent is not good enough for one-on-one matches at a high level, a lot of them are young and inexperienced, a lot did not have the time to do their thing, and some just had bad match-ups. Given that it's the first round of an elimination tournament, no one should go crazy for the opening round sucking, the fat has been thinned out and we're on to second round now.

As for the second round, we have Takeshita vs El Lindaman(!!), Akito vs Owashi, Ueno vs Dieno, T-Hawk vs Oishii(!!), Sasaki vs Aoki, Katsumata vs Tanaka, and HARASHIMA vs Haguchi (!!).

Something I need to mention. El Lindaman was a second in all of the matches of #DAMNHEARTS, so pretty much every match tonight. Pay this man double!