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KO-D Tag Team Title Match: Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi) (c) vs DDT Sauna Club (Konosuke Takeshita & MAO) - DDT Effort, Friendship And Victory In Nagoya 2021 - 23/02/2021 I thought this was excellent. The rating on cagematch raised a few eyebrows, but I'm in no way disappointed with the outcome. Whether it was Higuchi pairing off with MAO or Eruption’s incredible teamwork, this was purely quality. MAO sold for Higuchi’s back based attacks really well, bumping around while using his charisma to shine as an underdog. Sakaguchi was the right partner to compliment Higuchi’s work too. Even outside of the wrestling itself, Sakaguchi made Higuchi step on the gas even more with a few words and a slap. And that he did - just when the match seemed to be peaking, Takeshita and Higuchi match up and ramp up the intensity ever so more with an outstanding, bombastic closing stretch that saw Higuchi pick up the win after plenty of hard suplexes and throws. ****1/4

Another neat HARASHIMA title match. I really like the way he uses matwork to establish the pace of his matches and the matwork itself is always interesting, I can't really think of a proper comparison for it. He demolishes Higuchi's leg here, kicking away at it and twisting it in all sorts of ways. Higuchi looked good as well, he did a solid job of selling the damage and had some great power spots which was enough for HARASHIMA to get them to a very strong match. HARASHIMA is probably the best ace in Japan right now. ***1/2

Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai & Yukio Sakaguchi) vs. THE HALFEE (Katsuzaki Shunosuke, Moehiko Harumisawa & Washi Sakurai) - DDT Ganbare Pro Hermit Purple 2020 21/03/2020 This looked really good on paper. Eruption have been super solid since their formation in January of 2020. And their opponents mirror them in terms of styles, individually anyway. Sakaguchi and Shunosuke/Shuichiro Katsumura have the MMA influence, Harumisawa/Moeka Haruhi are the slender women of their team and Sakurai/Shuhei Washida are the burly big men of the respective groups. Something they were eager to explore in the opening exchanges. The GanPro team THE HALFEE were on the defensive for most of the match with Eruption asserting their dominance with some systematic tag work. The crowd rallied behind the regulars who responded with quick stretches of offence and some of that underdog flair. They utilized the styles match ups really nicely, as well as blending the pairings together. Sakurai, who was the young guy of the team, impressed me a ton. He and Higuchi were probably the best together out of the lot. His selling was really good, and while his offence was naturally basic, being only two years in, he used it really well. The match went at a super fast pace, making the whole match feel exciting and thrilling to watch. Great use of time and wrestlers involved. ***3/4

This ends up being the de facto block final, and it is very hype. I love a battle of two big guys where one is slightly bigger and slightly higher rated and they actively play into that. The striking towards the end here actually feels like a slugfest - two brawlers trying to win a fight, not just trading shots to see who has the most fighting spirit or whatever. I might be the biggest Higuchi fan around, but his selling ability and athleticism are always impressive as the big man in a match, and in a rare opportunity as the smaller man they really shine. This is my favorite match in the excellent group stage of this tournament. ****1/2

I really like the character Sasaki has developed, the kind of heel that will slap you not cuz he's a coward with a sudden burst of confidence that'll immediately disappear, but because he's thinking two steps ahead for the exact right way to distract you and get the advantage. And I think Higuchi is drastically underrated - a high energy big man who sells well and occasionally busts out a cool headscissors reversal, too. Sasaki's La Mistica is as gorgeous as ever. ***1/2

I've been going through this year's DDT recently, cherry picking interesting-looking things here and there and I haven't been watching every single one of these slightly different tag matches, but I figured I'd check this one because it's for the vacant titles and good god-damn am I glad I did. Higuchi is especially good here, as he gets his arm worked over and sells it really nicely throughout. There's an especially nice subtle spot where he catches Takeshita with a powerslam of sorts but has to let go with one of the arms midway through. The go all out on a fast, intense finishing stretch, including both Irie and Higuchi diving onto Takeshita to try and incapacitate him long enough so can't interfere in a pin attempt. This wildly exceeded my expectations; it's my favorite DDT I've seen so far this year and one of my fav tag matches anywhere. ****1/2