[2018-01-03-DDT-New Year's Special] HARASHIMA & Jiro Kuroshio & Kazusada Higuchi vs Konosuke Takeshita & Mike Bailey & Shuji Ishikawa

[Maciej]

This is seemingly just a random 6 man to set up for DDT's round robin tournament, which starts the next day, but it way overperforms, as DDT matches so often do. Favorite things include HARASHIMA's creative takedowns of the much bigger Ishikawa and rope running sequences between Takeshita and Higuchi that actually build to something later in the match. The HARASHIMA/Speedball portions of this match build wonderfully as well, with Bailey hitting a kick initially to make HARASHIMA just tag out immediately, then a big kick exchange in the middle of the match, and then finally the finishing run after a dive sequence that sees Higuchi almost kill himself. Don't miss this one before jumping into the tournament matches. ****1/4

[soup23]

This was a great way to get you amped for the Grand Prix. I thought Jiro fit it so well with the DDT mainstays as even though the jacket is a gimmick, he can also be serious and have a solid repertoire of wrestling. The finishing run was sick with Bailey and HARASHIMA taking center stage and doing some great precision strikes to each other. Overall, a really enjoyable main event. ***3/4