DDT Ultimate Tag League 2021 In Kobe!!
Announcements - Not much for announcements really, just calendar and card updates. 37KAMIINA were on opening duties. Toi Kojima ran out and I think he was trying to get invited to the 37KAMIINA, because he was shouting he loves Saunas. He's teaming with Ueno today, so maybe if they win, he gets in.
Good basic opener. It was mostly MAO on top with the exception of a couple of hope spots that Okatani had. Only story here was that Okatani took a lot of offense before losing to a Straightjacket Powerbomb.
Second match comedy. Story was kinda like seeing a breakup. Dieno didn't want to molest Owashi anymore, even after Nakamura tried to convince him to do so. At the end, things seemed to be working in Nakamura's advantage, but Owashi and Dieno joined forces to take out Nakamura, only for Dieno to ignore Owashi, ready to win the match, and instead get the win himself with the Gaydo Clutch.
Owashi was left in the turnbuckle, dumped, like a bride left in the altar.
Good, action packed match. Naya was the babyface in peril, Hirata got somewhat of a hot tag, but the real deal came with HARASHIMA, who had a brief, but good pair up with Endo. Unfortunately, it was Endo who got the win at the end over Naya, with a spinning Torture Rack bomb.
They definitely wanted HARASHIMA to look strong, but not give Endo the win.
This was soo good, just a great match with some strong technical work and some great striking. They're building Akito vs Ueno, so they made a lot of emphasis on them, with Akito having the technical advantage, but no matter what, Ueno just kept coming back. Okada and Kojima were there for the heat and decision, but they were just fantastic on their own. Kojima has developed a hell of a chop, and Okada, he's just one of the most underrated young guys in the world. Okada pinned Kojima with a Fisherman Buster, ending his dream to join the 37KAMIINA.
Ueno's back is all taped up, but in addition, Akito worked Ueno's arm for most of the match, so it could likely play a part on their title match.
Post-match - Okada thanked the crowd for coming. He went to high school and college in Kobe.
Not officially, but this is in a way, a match for Yoshimura's spot in the King of DDT tournament. Iino was mad that Yoshimura got a spot on the tourny and he didn't, mainly because Yoshimura JUST came back from rehab, and so he planned on defeating him and taking his spot.
Match was a hoss fight for sure, but it was a lot of psychology, telling the story of Iino working over the surgically repaired lower back of Yoshimura. Yoshimura made a comeback and later on led to the back and forward action. Even after having watched the whole Champion Carnival, I think this may had been one of my favorite hoss fights all year, just tons of great action, well paced, all revolving around a lower back story. Yoshimura won at the end with a lariat.
Post-match - Yoshimura thanked Iino for the match, but told him that he won and so he'll be in the tournament. He also said that by the next time he's back to Kobe, he'll be the 6-man champion after they defeat DAMNATION. My boy Yoshimura is back!
Ultimate Tag League 2021 Match
I've been complaining a bit about Honda matches as of late, they were feeling really repetitive, but this match just shut me up. From a workrate perspective, this was one of, if not THE best Honda match I've seen (it used to be Omega/Riho vs Honda/Yamashita, but even that one had more comedy than this). It's not to say that Honda magically became Tomohiro Ishii in the ring, he was still Honda and doing things in his most Honda way, but it was just non-stop Honda action.
They got the Gon The Fox thing out of the way early on, then a quick heat segment over Honda, followed by the hot tag. Once the match went all tornado tag, it was just back and forward action by all four men. We got a lot of Brookes vs both Take and Katsu, we got some great babyface spots with Honda versus Katsu, a ton of near falls, and at the end, Honda took the fall via roll up, but it came after he had come quite close to getting the win with an Octopus Stretch.
This was Brookes and Honda final match, and they're not officially eliminated, but what a great way for Honda to close out the tournament. This was a do or die match for both teams, and it unfortunately, was die for The IyasareruZ.
Ultimate Tag League 2021 Match
Aside from a couple of NJPW guys, I can't imagine than Akiyama has a lengthy wrestling wishlist, but ever since joining DDT, you can tell he's been working along with certain people, likely handpicked by him, and you can totally tell he really wanted to trade holds and strikes with Sakaguchi and Higuchi respectively.
This was great, just the perfect pair up of teams. Higuchi and Akiyama can hoss it up, Sakaguchi can trade submissions with both Oishi and Akiyama, and Oishi is just the perfect size for Higuchi to beat up in a babyface in peril run, and that was all there was to the story, the rest was 4 guys going at it. Higuchi looked like a monster, Sakaguchi and Oishi looked like technically proficient wrestlers, and Akiyama looked strong and resilient, like the champ. At the end, it came down to Sakaguchi and Oishi, with the latter getting the submission win with the Fujiyama Kneelock.
If Eruption had won this match, they would had won the whole thing, so it was a predictable result, but even so, it didn't hurt the match at all.
Post-match - Akiyama and Oishi had some words for the crowd. Akiyama put over Oishi for getting the win and getting 4th place in the Best Body Japan competition. Oishi was happy he submitted Sakaguchi, even if he lost a tooth in the match.
Really strong show by DDT. I wasn't expecting much of it, figured only the final two matches should be of importance, but with the exception the comedy match, this was all mostly top level wrestling. I ended up pleasantly surprised by how good this show was.
One more tournament show left.
MAO vs. Hideki Okatani - 6.5/10
Good basic opener. It was mostly MAO on top with the exception of a couple of hope spots that Okatani had. Only story here was that Okatani took a lot of offense before losing to a Straightjacket Powerbomb.
Toru Owashi vs. Danshoku Dieno vs. Keigo Nakamura - 4/10
Second match comedy. Story was kinda like seeing a breakup. Dieno didn't want to molest Owashi anymore, even after Nakamura tried to convince him to do so. At the end, things seemed to be working in Nakamura's advantage, but Owashi and Dieno joined forces to take out Nakamura, only for Dieno to ignore Owashi, ready to win the match, and instead get the win himself with the Gaydo Clutch.
Owashi was left in the turnbuckle, dumped, like a bride left in the altar.
DAMNATION (Daisuke Sasaki, Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo) vs. DISASTER BOX (HARASHIMA & Kazuki Hirata) & Yukio Naya - 7/10
Good, action packed match. Naya was the babyface in peril, Hirata got somewhat of a hot tag, but the real deal came with HARASHIMA, who had a brief, but good pair up with Endo. Unfortunately, it was Endo who got the win at the end over Naya, with a spinning Torture Rack bomb.
They definitely wanted HARASHIMA to look strong, but not give Endo the win.
Akito & Yusuke Okada vs. Toi Kojima & Yuki Ueno - 9/10
This was soo good, just a great match with some strong technical work and some great striking. They're building Akito vs Ueno, so they made a lot of emphasis on them, with Akito having the technical advantage, but no matter what, Ueno just kept coming back. Okada and Kojima were there for the heat and decision, but they were just fantastic on their own. Kojima has developed a hell of a chop, and Okada, he's just one of the most underrated young guys in the world. Okada pinned Kojima with a Fisherman Buster, ending his dream to join the 37KAMIINA.
Ueno's back is all taped up, but in addition, Akito worked Ueno's arm for most of the match, so it could likely play a part on their title match.
Post-match - Okada thanked the crowd for coming. He went to high school and college in Kobe.
Naomi Yoshimura vs. Yuki Iino - 9/10
Not officially, but this is in a way, a match for Yoshimura's spot in the King of DDT tournament. Iino was mad that Yoshimura got a spot on the tourny and he didn't, mainly because Yoshimura JUST came back from rehab, and so he planned on defeating him and taking his spot.
Match was a hoss fight for sure, but it was a lot of psychology, telling the story of Iino working over the surgically repaired lower back of Yoshimura. Yoshimura made a comeback and later on led to the back and forward action. Even after having watched the whole Champion Carnival, I think this may had been one of my favorite hoss fights all year, just tons of great action, well paced, all revolving around a lower back story. Yoshimura won at the end with a lariat.
Post-match - Yoshimura thanked Iino for the match, but told him that he won and so he'll be in the tournament. He also said that by the next time he's back to Kobe, he'll be the 6-man champion after they defeat DAMNATION. My boy Yoshimura is back!
Ultimate Tag League 2021 Match
The IyasareruZ (Antonio Honda & Chris Brookes) [2] vs. The 37KAMIINA (Konosuke Takeshita & Shunma Katsumata) [1] - 8/10
I've been complaining a bit about Honda matches as of late, they were feeling really repetitive, but this match just shut me up. From a workrate perspective, this was one of, if not THE best Honda match I've seen (it used to be Omega/Riho vs Honda/Yamashita, but even that one had more comedy than this). It's not to say that Honda magically became Tomohiro Ishii in the ring, he was still Honda and doing things in his most Honda way, but it was just non-stop Honda action.
They got the Gon The Fox thing out of the way early on, then a quick heat segment over Honda, followed by the hot tag. Once the match went all tornado tag, it was just back and forward action by all four men. We got a lot of Brookes vs both Take and Katsu, we got some great babyface spots with Honda versus Katsu, a ton of near falls, and at the end, Honda took the fall via roll up, but it came after he had come quite close to getting the win with an Octopus Stretch.
This was Brookes and Honda final match, and they're not officially eliminated, but what a great way for Honda to close out the tournament. This was a do or die match for both teams, and it unfortunately, was die for The IyasareruZ.
Ultimate Tag League 2021 Match
Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi) [4] vs. Junretsu (Jun Akiyama & Makoto Oishi) [2] - 9/10
Aside from a couple of NJPW guys, I can't imagine than Akiyama has a lengthy wrestling wishlist, but ever since joining DDT, you can tell he's been working along with certain people, likely handpicked by him, and you can totally tell he really wanted to trade holds and strikes with Sakaguchi and Higuchi respectively.
This was great, just the perfect pair up of teams. Higuchi and Akiyama can hoss it up, Sakaguchi can trade submissions with both Oishi and Akiyama, and Oishi is just the perfect size for Higuchi to beat up in a babyface in peril run, and that was all there was to the story, the rest was 4 guys going at it. Higuchi looked like a monster, Sakaguchi and Oishi looked like technically proficient wrestlers, and Akiyama looked strong and resilient, like the champ. At the end, it came down to Sakaguchi and Oishi, with the latter getting the submission win with the Fujiyama Kneelock.
If Eruption had won this match, they would had won the whole thing, so it was a predictable result, but even so, it didn't hurt the match at all.
Post-match - Akiyama and Oishi had some words for the crowd. Akiyama put over Oishi for getting the win and getting 4th place in the Best Body Japan competition. Oishi was happy he submitted Sakaguchi, even if he lost a tooth in the match.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Really strong show by DDT. I wasn't expecting much of it, figured only the final two matches should be of importance, but with the exception the comedy match, this was all mostly top level wrestling. I ended up pleasantly surprised by how good this show was.
One more tournament show left.