Makai Club #1

This was an interesting match choice to kick off Starrcade, with it being one of the more famous pairings of the era, despite their low card status. Kruschev aka Barry Darsow has always praised Sam Houston for being a wonderful opponent for him, and you can certainly see that chemistry. It's what you want from an opening match, getting the crowd hot and heavy immediately while not doing much past the basics, not affecting later matches down the show. Sam Houston is tall, being the son of Grizzly Smith after all, but the sheer mass of Kruschev is impressive and makes Houston more of an underdog than he usually is. Houston is very over with the Greensboro crowd and is able to get them rocking with punch/kick combos followed by dropkick. Kruschev is able to cut Houston off at several key moments though and is able to recover quickly after getting pinned with his foot on the rope to hit the Russian Sickle for the three count. Solid bout. ***

The Raw match where Triple H won the title was pretty fun, I thought. It was short and had a lot of bumping from the Big Show, to make HHH look strong. But no interference aside from DX standing on the apron.

Excellent match. This was played seriously for the most part but the bits of comedy that were interjected in the match here and there only added to the match. Grey was very teasing which only made Myers get more frustrated and urgent as the match went on. But what was most admirable was the outstanding technical wrestling. Grey had many tricky counters to Myers driven approach and matched him hold from hold. These two made me love the roll up exchange ala Eddie/Malenko. Great bout. ****1/4

Cien Caras is the hot rudo but he got out-rudo’d by the Infernales. Tirantes was constantly being manipulated by Satanico and then distracted by Mascara Ano 2k, which allowed for MS-1 and Satanico to cheat and double team on Caras. Eventually Ano 2k loses his shit and attacks Satanico, getting the DQ for his brother and giving the fall to MS-1. MS-1 continues working the arm, as he did during the first fall and Satanico kept on pushing his luck. But with no Mascara Anos 2K to distract the ref, Tirantes caught Satanico and awarded the fall to Cien Caras via DQ, making it 1-1. And the final fall is finally mano v mano and it delivers on that with solid action built around struggle and drama. The pop when Cien Caras gets the pin and gives MS-1 his comeuppance was awesome. As was Touch and Go (The entrance music of Cien Caras) getting played while MS-1 is getting his hair shaved. ****

This was an excellent Akiyama performance topped off by him getting the result. He and Misawa worked well a team initially but then once HDA were in control, he had some good success in countering both Taue and Kawada’s offence for a short bit. And then Akiyama was the one who regained the advantage and put the finishing touches on Kawada, who was really good in his own right. He was very petty and measured with his offence, opting to play with Akiyama and Misawa rather than actually destroy them like he'd do normally. It was a character driven performance and he was excellent at it. Taue and Misawa were strong in their roles, teasing some of what's to come while keeping the match narrative in focus. Great tag team match. ****

This got incredible heat. And the action lived upto that as well. Valentine is an outright bully in this with his violent assaults on the arm and the body. Tito’s selling was amazing and put Valentine's offence over as very dangerous. The count out victory was only a good outcome for Tito Santana in theory but he was hurting badly. ****1/4

I've noticed recently that everyone tends the take bumps in the middle of the ring rather than the sides, unless it leads to a foot on the ropes or an apron spot. It can be awkward at times, especially when setting up top rope moves.

Open The Dream Gate Title #1 Contendership Match: Milano Collection AT vs. Ryo Saito This looks like this is a good place to pick a start to Ryo Saito’s accession to the Dream Gate Title which will culminate next year. Despite being against Milano, who is on his way out (although perhaps that isn't known in real time), he has the crowd in the palm of his hand and is able to get the win and a title shot against Masaaki Mochizuki soon after. The match has a lot of history behind it. Dragon Gate airs their 2001 acclaimed match in T2P during the intermission. So there is a lot of tension in the air besides just the title match. Milano controls the majority of the match in the way you'd expect. Tons of tricky, lucha libre inspired holds with a little flair. Perfect style for Milano who is an eccentric character. Ryo Saito’s selling was really solid, helping make Milano a credible winner and gaining crowd heat for himself. The match’s bread and butter was creating some terrific, nail-biting nearfalls for a prolonged time period. Great stuff. ****

Open The Dream Gate Title Match: Masaaki Mochizuki vs CIMA (c) Great match with an incredible ending with a hot crowd that went nuts for the result. Unlike the Susumu title defence, the grappling was much better this time around with Mochizuki staying focused on the chest, also using it for kick practice as the match progressed. This was a respect filled match as neither tried to cheat in the match. This was a straight match with them telegraphing what each other was going to do, like CIMA stopping the Sankakugeri by Mochi very quickly and Mochi blocking the Schwein from CIMA before lighting CIMA up with the flurry of kicks for the finish. The match was full of net counters like that and it added to the story greatly. This was a truly fantastic match with great wrestling and drama. ****1/2

Open The Triangle Gate Title Match: Italian Connection (Anthony W. Mori, Milano Collection AT & YOSSINO) (c) vs. Aagan Iisou (Shuji Kondo, Takuya Sugawara & YASSHI) While this isn't Aagan Iisou’s final match in the company, it's the last one that was on TV, as they'd be fired on New Year's Eve for behavioural problems. It must have been something big as all five members were sacked. What a rowdy bunch of lads. They were the same in their wrestling as well. In Dragon Gate, there is a big distinction between heels and faces, similar to Lucha Libre in the way I mean, and they were real heels. Kondo has all the advantages in the world with his size and yet he insists on choking Mori with a shirt. That's the type of people they are. The tag team wrestling was spectacular at times. High speed pacing. Great sense of urgency and rush to end the match before someone interferes. Good triple and double team moves. The whole works. Yoshino and Kondo were excellent when paired up, being ultra lightning speed v raw, explosive power, as were Mori and Sugawara. Everyone had their role though and contributed to the match. Including President Takashi Okumura, who sorted YASSHI out. ***3/4

Hair Vs. Mask Eight Man Tag Team Match: Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Magnum TOKYO & Ryo Saito) vs. Florida Express (Daniel Mishima, Johnson Florida, Kensuke Sasaki & Michael Iwasa) I can't believe it. Kensuke Sasaki got pinned! That was unexpected. Obviously it was through Do FIXER antics (freedom salt) but but did the job. The match was hilarious like most Florida Express matches. Do FIXER desperately tried to budge Sasaki to no avail so they attempted to quit the match, which was pretty funny. There was an amusing all inclusive suplex spot, including Hokuto with the punch line being only Sasaki and Hokuto do a moonsault while the rest of the group gets suplexed. This had some rather good serious wrestling as well in short spurts - Dragon Kid and Sasaki could have a real good match in them if it was made. Genki Horiguchi hit some sick dropkicks as well. Fun match. And fair play to Kensuke Sasaki for shaving off his own hair for this comedy gimmick. Respect! ***1/2

Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Magnum TOKYO) vs. Florida Express (Daniel Mishima, Kensuke Sasaki & Michael Iwasa) Such a fabulous set of entrances. Do FIXER enters in the Do FIXER way while Kensuke Sasaki has the time of his life goofing around, coming out to Living in America with the Florida Bros in American get up. Much to the embarrassment of Akira-Chan, as he calls her. Then out comes Stalker Ichikawa. Who challenges Akira Hokuto to a match! And that goes as well as you'd might expect. Stalker lasted longer with Yoshiaki Fujiwara than he did with Akira Hokuto. The match was masterful comedy. It had the usual Florida Brother spots but with Kensuke Sasaki playing along, and sometimes not, that was increased tenfold. There were many times where I bellowed out with laughter, but one time in particular was the arm wringer spot where Dragon Kid was too weak to twist Sasaki’s arm so he had to ask Sasaki to play along, which he did. There were plenty of similar spots that were so funny. This was just as funny outside of the spots involving Sasaki. The best thing about Dragon Gate is everyone is trained in the same system so their traits are in-line with each other, and that includes comedy, so Magnum Tokyo begging was just as funny as the ref doing arm drags to everyone. The finish was cute as well - Magnum Tokyo attempts a Pumphandle but his arm gets trapped by Sasaki’s massive thighs and the ref thinks it's a low blow attempt and calls it. Wow. This is why I rate comedy matches. Amazing experience. ****1/4

Hair Vs. Hair Tag Team Match: Anthony W. Mori & Ryo Saito vs. Aagan Iisou (Shuji Kondo & Takuya Sugawara) Takuya Sugawara shone greatly in this match. He came across as a vile, prick of a man with his facial expressions, dismissive aura and his general look. What he lacked for stand out offence, he made up for in everything else. He and Mori had some really good exchanges with Sugawara bullying the skinny Italian (heh) and feeding for Mori’s hope spots. The spot where he brought in the scissors and stabbed Saito like he was Abdullah The Butcher was awesome as well. He and Saito had some solid double team work as did Mori and Saito who aren't even in the same unit. As for why they are teaming together, I don't know but they worked off each other well in their roles. Kondo was in the match at least but he was great any time he was in. Great power spots, a good game changer for when Sugawara needed help and vital for giving his team the win. Ultimately the match ends with Mori and Sugawara, as they were the main story of the match. Mori got pinned by the Shiisanpuuta, so he has to shave his head. Ryo Saito stops him and offers his own hair. Sugawara attempted to shave Mori’s hair after the fact but Saito stopped him. Strong match with shockingly incredible drama. ****

It's an interesting comparison, I'll say that. Both have their strong points. I'm not sure I'll vote for Greco but just comparing him to Okada highlights his strengths. He's an animal when it comes to strikes and submission wrestling. If I'm watching Battlarts, he's more than likely to be in that match. And compared to Okada, offensively, he he way more convincing. Okada has iffy offence when he comes to strikes and submissions. Okada has a more predictable style, thanks to the New Japan in-house style. So if you like not knowing when the match will end, Greco is the better guy to go with. But despite all of the that, Okada is the better of the two for me. For someone like myself who can be rather cynical when it come to certain wrestling tropes like kick outs, Okada is some one who can have me living and dying off the drama of his matches despite their similarities to many other matches of his. I've already mentioned his strikes as as a negative but that can be turned into a positive if you look at how he uses them. In matches against people like Katsuyori Shibata and Minoru Suzuki, that comes out tenfold despite the obvious gap in stiffness. Okada uses it as a way for his opponents to get the clear advantage while he stubbornly tries to prove his toughness. It's a compelling mini story that Okada has pretty much perfected (Both on TV and in a live crowd setting). I compare it to Suzuki vs Nagata, for example, doing the same elbow exchanges and almost always killing my interest despite their strikes being superior to Okada's. I don't think many people in this thread would agree with that though, as it's more of a personal feeling. At the end of the day, Okada through his wrestling makes me and plenty of people care about the match result. And you can maybe pick his matches apart, saying there can be a lot of dead spots, and you'll be right, but it doesn't bother me a whole lot ultimately. Each person has their own criteria.

Jericho is an odd cookie. He could go out and have the MOTN (He and Christian was my MOTN on a WM full of highly acclaimed matches) and had many different periods in his career where he was a highlight of the show, having many good feuds against Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Christian, etc. But there are quite a few clunkers in there. I really dislike the series with Punk whether it be the WM, Extreme Rules or Payback '13 matches. In fact most of what he did after the Jerishow run is on my "do not watch" list. The New Japan run was a step up with a shockingly great match against Omega, a solid match with EVIL, who isn't exactly a top wrestler, and a fun match against Tanahashi. Same with AEW. Some good, but more bad sprinkled in, like the Orange Cassidy Mimosa match. With Barry Windham, I've only seen good things. Although that is due to selective picking as I don't see the point of actively watching bad wrestling on purpose but I do acknowledge that Windham had his low points. Right now, I'm going for Windham but both will be in the low half of my 100.

I've watched very little of pre-2009 DDT. But I have see the Aloha World Order. Antonio Honda was doing a Ricky Steamboat impression which was hilarious. I will check out what you mentioned. Some are on their service, some isn't so I'll have to rely on my skills at finding matches and links.

I’m at a loss for words at this match. Its entire presentation from the entrances and beyond is just phenomenal. To simply put it, it’s an absolute classic in every sense of the word. The brawling is OUT OF CONTROL in ways that wrestlers such as Stan Hansen was never really able to capture himself. It was uncontainable between not only Dump and Yukari but all the seconds on the outside, too, including Gokuaku Domei, Devil Masami and Chigusa Nagayo. First of all, Dump's entrance was amazing. I adored her Samurai costume as it makes her look like a total monstrous villain. Her eyes among the blackish face mask, especially, gave me that feeling. Yukari Omori came out with shoulder pads that reminded me of Norman Smiley but it worked and it definitely helped give the match an intense aura without them even touching. And when they did, the match broke down immediately into the Dump Masamoto show. Teenager girls crying, wild brawling, scissor stabbings. Wrestling. *****

I don't believe I've ever seen, or heard of, a 30 minute draw in RINGS. It was an ambitious effort, and a spectacular one at that. Thanks to the style of RINGS, the slower moments on the ground were just as compelling as the balls-out closing stretch where they are cutting each other up. The grappling truly was excellent. It was methodically paced so they could take their time on the struggle aspects of applying and defending the holds. There was a lot of emphasis on movement and swarming around trying to get a better position for an opening before both get more desperate and start throwing more and more meaningful strikes. There were stoppages for the blood but that only added to the intensity just knowing that both are hurting and that led to a more all or nothing approach. Both resorted to throwing the hardest kicks to the body that they could throw but nothing could finish the match other than the time limit bell. ****1/2

Not as spectacular as some of their more famous bouts but they opt for a more shoot match. It reminds me a bit of what they did in 99, going extra in on making it look like a shoot before actually doing it. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The finish felt like it came out of Pancrase with Tamura cranking on the toe hold for the tap. ***3/4

This was wild. It was awesome seeing Yamamoto trying hard to figure out Volk Han and getting the better of him in certain moments, getting a down and trapping Han in holds several times. But Volk Han is a different breed. He overcame Yamamoto with counter wrestling and wriggled his way into a cross arm breaker win. ****

Naruki Doi has improved as a singles wrestler in the last five years. Maybe not as good as Mochizuki, YAMATO or Shingo but he has some incredible singles matches against Ben K at the 2019 Final Gate show, YAMATO in the 2018 King Of Gate and Eita match where he lost the Dream Gate title. Everyone else has already agreed that he's a strong character worker and that shows in his wrestling, like it's supposed to. And while being a heel is his strength, he's just as compelling as a face as well. Even when there is a slight hint at another heel turn, he's good at feeding on that and subverting expectations, much to the benefit of the match.

The King of DDT Tournament is a 16 man single Elimination tournament that takes place once a year. Unlike most promotions, this is the more important tournament in the DDT Callender than the D-Ou which is a Round Robin tournament. When it gets down to the final two, there is a random draw to determine the Semi Final matches. King Of DDT 2021 – 1st Round - 10/06/2021 King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1A Match: HARASHIMA Vs Makoto Oishi Makoto Oishi looks like one of your average d-list Indie Junior Heavyweights but he's sneakily good in these smaller settings. He showed that here as well. There was one point in the match where he grapevine HARASHIMA’s leg while he was stuck in the Scorpion Hold position and made it extremely difficult for HARASHIMA to lock on the hold. Oishi is also pretty much the modern day Finlay as well. Before anyone gets excited, I mean his contributions to making Tokyo Joshi Pro’s idol wrestlers, who could barely run the ropes at the start into competent wrestlers with a loyal fanbase. The match continued to be worked around the leg, with both HARASHIMA and Oishi finding different ways to roll into submission holds and other pinning predicaments. HARASHIMA won out in the end but it was a solid showcase for Oishi’s strengths above just giving HARASHIMA a small win into the second round. *** King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1B Match: Yuji Hino Vs Yukio Sakaguchi I've found Yuji Hino’s run in DDT to be quite boring. Hino is a pudgy man with a big powerbomb and in a promotion with loads of Juniors, it makes sense that he plays the immovable big man but it's played out in a one note way as Hino’s charisma is totally downplayed in that role. But this is different as Sakaguchi is a bit more powerful than, let's say, Yuki Ueno, and has legit fighting skills that can cause Hino trouble, so Hino reverted back to his usual work. Hino messes with Sakaguchi, mocking his fighting stance and slapping the side of his leg but Sakaguchi wasn't having that and decided that choking and kneeing Hino in the face was the way to go. Sakaguchi has the Double Wrist Lock on several times but Hino shrugs him off with ease, showing his strength. We get a strike exchange, this time it being: Kicks vs Chops. And it's alright. Both sell each strike appropriately and they move on to the closing where they go back and forth before Hino wins with the Fucking Bomb. Solid match. *** King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1C Match: MAO Vs Soma Takao MAO comes out wearing a Duck Ring around his waist, like you'd wear in a Swimming Pool. Ha. MAO has an interesting history. Apparently he was scouted by the company founder, Sanshiro Takagi, on a video of him doing wrestling moves on his trampoline. We have a backyarder in DDT and he's wild. Raw, but a lot of fun to watch. . Soma Takao is a little more boring in his past though. Soma is an odd wrestler himself though. Awesome entrance song, occasionally has a great performance but 8/10 times he's the most average wrestler. Perfectly mechanical. And the match doesn't fit into the minority. MAO teases hitting an Asai Moonsault before realising that he's in Shinjuku Face and there is no room. The action is quick and smooth but nothing special until Mao hits the crazy brainbuster off the top rope. **1/4 King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1D Match: Akito Vs Konosuke Takeshita The VP vs The Company Ace! This is the most exciting match in the first round as it's two of the better wrestlers in the promotion but it's also stablemate against stablemate. The match was super good. It allowed Takeshita to show his grappling skill opposed to sticking with the bomb fest formula. Akito had some neat WOS-esc counters out of the wheelbarrow position and some, plus Akito had some neat small details in his submission work, like digging his elbow and fists into the spine of Takeshita while Akito had him locked in a front head-scissors. Takeshita adapted fairly well to the tricky style of Akito, using his strength to deadlift Akito off his pressure points. The finish was sudden with Takeshita quickly finding a weakness of Akito’s (his arm) and began wrenching on it until he won the match. Great finish. ***1/4 King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1E Match: Yuki Ueno Vs Daisuke Sasaki Coming off Yuki Uneo pinning NOAH’s former GHC Heavyweight Champion, Kaito Kiyomiya, I'm certain that Ueno losing was not the correct choice. Even if Daisuke Sasaki cheated to win. Head scratching booking choice. The match was short with the tide turning constantly. Each move looked like it could get the win for either guy which I suppose is a good thing but the result throws me off. And I say that as a Daisuke Sasaki fan. ** King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1F Match: Shunma Katsumata Vs Jun Akiyama If you want to see Jun Akiyama beating some deathmatch wannabe punk while wearing his pink beanie, this is for you. Shunma pinballs himself about for Akiyama, while adopting a never stop moving approach in the brief spells he gets on offence. Soon the legos come out but Akiyama is able to move when Shunma attempts a flying splash and rolls him up. Fun match. *** King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1G Match: Kazusada Higuchi Vs Naomi Yoshimura This is a bit of a waste of Higuchi. A large part of the match was mostly just chop exchanges. And while they chop hard, any time they actually wrestled, the match was exceptionally better. Higuchi had a great claw hold that looked painful, which is rare and that led to Yoshimura attempting to lift him up in order to hit an exploder only to be forced back down. And that led into a chokeslam (but not a choke as Higuchi is holding the face) for the win. That was the first great finish and only a small hint of what they could do against each other. The tag matches between Eruption and Yoshimura/Ueno are other examples of that as well. ** King Of DDT 2021 – Round 1H Match: Tetsuya Endo Vs Chris Brookes This was an interesting match. It was mostly built around the Octopus Hold and both attempted to get the wins. Brookes can be inconsistent but he does have moments of quality, like adapting the hold to wrap Endo’s arm in a hammer lock position around the ropes. These two really put in a ton of effort with it being a main event and it resulted in an exciting competitive match with some cool moments, such as the aforementioned Octopus Hold battle and Endo bringing out an updated version of a Canadian Destroyer. Everything's better when you hook the arms. And that led to the Shooting Star Press finish to end the night out strong. ***1/2

Both are geniuses in their own right. Both adapt to their opponents really well and were able to come up with some great moments within those matches. Both had well regarded heel runs - Bryan in ROH (I have a pet peeve about heels being cheered so I don't consider myself that WWE heel run a success, through no fault of his own) and Bret in 97 which was instrumental for making getting one he was feuding with (Austin) into a path to superstardom. There are plenty of parallels between the two in regards to their WWE runs. They were always the fan favourites and pushed to the top before being cycled back down before being pushed back to the top again with WWE constantly trying to find other people for that position only for it not to work out (Diesel and Shawn Michaels, who was supposed to drop the title to Bret remember, for Bret. Batista and recently Edge for Bryan). Being a trusted stabiliser is a big, big plus for me. The difference in volume of great matches does go to Bryan. Similar to Flair, you can probably pick out any match of his and it's very good whereas Bret picked his moments, didn't always go out to have a great match and sometimes not always delivering when he tried but something about Bret's overall work gives off a better and more memorable impression on me. This is a criticism that I have with Bryan. He has many great matches but matches that I'm always thinking of and willing to actively seek out are few and far between. Bret has those key matches that I will watch once every few months. And it's not just the best of the best either. I'll always watch the Pierre Ouellet match and it's probably not that much better than the twentieth best Bryan match. Let alone the Owen, Austin, Diesel matches. I'll go with Bret Hart.

He totally was. #2 behind Austin, if we aren't including Vince McMahon. Rock had the bigger spots but he was secondary in a lot of his biggest matches and feuds (HHH, Austin, Foley, even Shamrock). Foley had the iconic match of the era (Hell of the Cell), had what was the best match of the era (Rock at the Rumble but Austin at Over The Edge is just as great) and was critical is getting over the biggest heel of the latter stages of the AE in Triple H when Austin struggled (or wouldn't). Even when he retired as a wrestler and became commissioner in 2000, he had some memorable moments going against Vince, revealing Rikishi ran over Stone Cold. The Foley Cheap Pop term was created in that era as well.

The Foley feud was more like the Vince feud with Foley as a of proxy while a being fresh challenger for Austin as Taker was being set for Summerslam, Kane was in a feud with Taker and Rock isn't ready to challenge yet. You could argue Foley wasn't the guy either though when he was just in a team with Terry Funk feuding with the Outlaws.