wrestling / Video Reviews
Furious Flashbacks: DDT New Year’s Gift Special 2015
Image Credit: DDT Pro-Wrestling
Loading...DDT New Year’s Gift Special 2015
3rd January 2015
We’re in Tokyo, Japan at the Korakuen Hall. 2,200 in attendance. Perhaps a few attendees who are in town to see Wrestle Kingdom the next day. All seats are 2000 Yen, which isn’t much at all, hence the title of the show. Nakazawa and Dino take advantage of this and are watching from the front row.
Kota Umeda vs. Shuma Katsumata
Drawing a total blank on Umeda. Katsumata I’ve seen before. He has pleather gear and orange & red hair like a good Indy spot monkey. They start basic, due to Umeda’s inexperience but he’s really fast. He’s pretty good with the ropes and isn’t bad at striking either. For a first outing, to me anyway, he comes across really well. Most young boy jobbers I don’t care for. Shunma taps him with a Boston crab, after kneeling on the poor kids head. And shock of shocks, this was actually ok.
Final Rating: **
Makoto Oishi, Shuji Ishikawa & Hoshitango vs. Yasu Urano, Akito & Gota Ihashi
Gota Ihashi gets fatter every time I see him. He’s seriously starting to resemble a beach ball. Oishi is carried to the ring by the two monsters he’s brought with him. Bringing Ishikawa is almost like cheating because he’s so big. Urano does some funny stuff with him, like stamping on his feet or attacking his nipples so Shuji drops to a height he can actually hit. His attempts to suplex Hoshitango are quite funny too. Akito, being the smart guy on the team, goes after the knees of the big men. Akito runs a bit of comedy too by taking out the whole other team and leaving Oishi prone on the mat before tagging Ihashi but he takes so long coming in that Shuji is able to tag in and throw him off the top. Shuji then hits the blubberball with a sitout powerbomb that makes the ring shake for the pin. This was fun.
Final Rating: **1/4
Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship:
YOSHIHIKO (c), Antonio Honda & Soma Takao vs. Masa Takanashi, DJ Nira & Saki Akai
Given the truly ridiculous nature of this title there are only two possible winners; Akai or the love doll. It’s actually not a free-for-all but rather a six man tag pitting the champion’s team (YOSHIKO, Honda & Takao) against the others. Presumably Honda & Takao are here to protect the title not win it. YOSHIHIKO is fairly unresponsive so the challengers toss the champion around for a while. An aside to this is Honda finding it hard to hit Saki, because she’s a girl, but finding the strength after he takes a kick and hitting the Thesz Press and fists of fire. Honda then spends so long winding up a punch that DJ Nira has time to bind his hands with toilet paper. You really only get this stuff in DDT. Akai even gets to show how she’s progressing by doing the satellite headscissors thing with YOSHIHIKO and reversing the pin for the title. I am a sucker for the Iron Man Heavy Metal championship. It’s proof the WWE didn’t go far enough with their own ridiculous angles and DDT have taken it to ludicrous new heights.
Final Rating: ***
Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship:
Saki Akai (c) vs. Aja Kong
The 24/7 rule comes into play immediately with Aja turning up to challenge. She ducks a belt shot before winning with a brainbuster. SHIN CHAMPION!
Final Rating: SQUASH
Sanshiro Takagi & Toru Owashi vs. Super Sasadango Machine & Super Sasadango Machine #2
SSM2 is the worst kept secret, ever, as it’s blatantly Bernard Ackah, who Takagi is feuding with. How many black guys in boxing gloves work for DDT? Ackah struggles enough with the basics of wrestling without putting a mask on. I almost didn’t see this match because the upload has it out of order and I probably could have skipped it. Ackah has great difficulty doing the spots he’s supposed to although one spin kick smacks Takagi firmly in the jaw. Super Sasadango’s idea for rescuing the match is to work over Sanshiro’s teeth after that spot. Hilarity follows as Ackah is unmasked and SSM takes his own mask off to cover Ackah’s shame only to realise he JUST UNMASKED HIMSELF. D’Oh. SSM runs through the following few spots with his hands over his face. We all know it’s really Muscle Sakai but that was good for a few laughs. Takagi beats him with La Majistral and stands there preaching afterwards while Ackah is unmasked and sits there weeping. The match felt pretty useless until the unmasking comedy, which won me over.
Final Rating: **
K-OD Six Man Championship:
Brahman Kei, Brahman Shu & Gorgeous Matsuno (c) vs. Golden Storm Riders (Kota Ibushi, Daisuke Sasaki & Suguru Miyatake)
Keep in mind this is the day before the Dome Show and here’s Kota Ibushi in a 6-man tag for DDT. Why do NJPW even let him risk injury like this? It’d be different if he wasn’t in a big match but his Nakamura match is going on second last. The Brahmen bring all the usual crap with Matsuno joining in the gimmick. Matsuno is 53 going on a million. He looks like the re-animated corpse of an Egyptian pharaoh. Warning to fans watching Brahman matches; if you’re in the front three rows you will get wet. It’s fun watching the Tokyoites ducking behind newspapers and raincoats. Ibushi forgets himself a bit and goes to throw Matsuno, the 53 year old, off the Korakuen balcony. Which isn’t like the ECW balcony dives as it’s much higher and there’s nowhere to land. Sanity prevails and they return to a crowd brawl. Ibushi decides to walk back to the ring on the top of the seats, which seems needlessly dangerous and results in him falling groin first onto the rail. “Ohhh, CROTCHY” shouts the announcer. Ibushi seems to have a good time using Miyatake as an offensive weapon. It’s young boy abuse that the Catholic church would be proud of. Brahmen bring the spots; luggage, bowling ball, pig’s head etc. Kota gives Matsuno the slow motion Last Ride only for it to be countered, in slow motion into a rana pin. It’s weird how great Ibushi makes the slow motion spots look. Miyatake does fine work by mixing up a protein shake in mid-match that makes him no sell. I love the psychology behind that. Golden Storm Riders miscue with the soy sauce spit though and Matsuno, who looks confused, gets the win with a roll up. Half the match was crowd brawling and half convoluted spots and yet I got a kick out of it. You know what you’re getting with the Brahmen Brothers.
Final Rating: ***
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Tomomitsu Matsunaga
This is where Dino & Nakazawa come into play as they’ve got their two factions going head to head in a best of five series. Matsunaga is a solid mat wrestler and Takeshita is an up and comer. DDT seem very keen on Takeshita, hence him getting booked in some big matches with little experience. I think he needs to bulk up a bit to make himself look more credible. He does some top selling here though with Matsunaga working his back over. It creates a lot of sympathy and having a fundamentals guy like Matsunaga around is good for DDT and their world of wackiness. I don’t like Takeshita finishing with a German suplex because of the bridge. He shouldn’t be able to do that with his bad back but he does. Match was solid but unspectacular.
Final Rating: **1/4
Kazuki Hirata vs. Yukio Sakaguchi
Call me crazy but I’m really looking forward to this. Hirata is over like clover thanks to his dancing gimmick and Yukio is a bad-ass shooter. It should be a good clash of styles. I love Hirata dancing, Yukio interrupting it and Hirata slapping him and giving him a massive dressing down for doing so. Then he suddenly remembers who Yukio Sakaguchi is! Hirata manages to avoid an early kick to the face, which he then mockingly dances around so Yukio kicks him in the face. This continues, with Hirata getting cocky every time he lands something and suddenly stopping when he sees Yukio’s face. Poor Hirata gets a few spots in before being taken down with a sleeper and the PK. This was fun but short.
Final Rating: **1/2
MIKAMI vs. KUDO
MIKAMI is the guy that loves ladders. He’s made more of a career from diving off ladders than Jeff Hardy. This at least gives him a chance against KUDO although I’m not certain he should be allowed to do ladder spots in a normal match. These guys used to be a tag team so they know each other quite well. It allows some interesting familiarity counters. Especially regarding the ladder where MIKAMI always gets the better of it so KUDO doesn’t want to use it at all. KUDO stiffs the shit out of poor MIKAMI and finishes with diving double knees. This was fun but short. Sound familiar? DDT are putting out a run of these 5 minute matches between good wrestlers.
Final Rating: **1/2
HARASHIMA vs. Tetsuya Endo
This is not for HARASHIMA’s title. I’m interested to see how up and comer Endo shapes up against the champ. He starts fast and furious, looking to discombobulate HARASHIMA with his speed and guts. HARASHIMA doesn’t seem overly impressed, gets in control quickly and starts to boss the match. Then it becomes about Endo’s ability to survive the stomps and kicks. There are times during Endo’s comeback where HARASHIMA isn’t quite sure what he’s going for, which causes problems but HARASHIMA is exceptional at covering for things going wrong, so you’d never know. He feeds Endo little comeback spots and the youngster bites him hand off on the flipping opportunities. They trade on kicks and Endo gets a few exciting near falls and everything seems to click. It’s fairly typical of HARASHIMA to get the same minimal amount of time as everyone else and yet put on a far superior match. Endo takes one too many kicks and gets downed with the SOMATOOOOOO. HARASHIMA wins.
Final Rating: ***1/4
Shigehiro Irie vs. Michael Nakazawa
The match starts out simply enough as big man vs. sneaky comedy man until Nakazawa breaks out the duct tape and tapes up Irie’s face before taping him to the ring post. It’s green, like Irie’s hair, which is a nice touch. He looks like a neon mummy. Irie escapes and avoids the Underpants Claw. I’m sure Nakazawa is not popular for using his pants as a weapon. He virtually smothers Irie with them here. He’s going to get conjunctivitis. Irie gives Nakazawa a pasting for it, including a Superfly Splash and a brutal elbow to block another Underpants Claw. He looks to have it sewn up with a lariat. The bell rings shortly afterwards, the match is a 10 minute draw. Good contest too.
Final Rating: ***
Thirty Four Man Tag Match
With the series over and Nakazawa’s team having won there’s the small matter of the main event with 500 points on the line! The one side is Smile Squash, Shuten Doji, Golden Storm Riders, Nakazawa and some others. Dino’s team is Happy Motel, the Brahmen, Team Dream Futures, T2Hide and some miscellaneous guys including YOSHIHIKO. As far as DDT’s ridiculous main events go it’s about par for the course. I love that they introduce EVERYONE. It takes about 2 minutes! Also, because the ring is completely surrounded the action can’t be seen at all. There’s no space. The only people who can see are the other wrestlers. Shuji Ishikawa sorts that out by running the ropes and knocking EVERYONE to the floor. This leads into a wild 33 man brawl around ringside while Hirata dances. It’s like being at a goddamn rave. Another chucklesome spot is Nakazawa SOMEHOW getting himself isolated and attacked in the corner by EVERYONE. The YOSHIHIKO spot makes me laugh. Ibushi gets the SLOW MOTION KNOCK OUT PUNCH! Despite taking moves from everyone else in the match Nakazawa promptly wins with the Underpants Rainmaker on Honda. Considering this was a match featuring 34 wrestlers it didn’t even run 10 minutes but it was tremendous.
Final Rating: ***1/4
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