[2018-01-05-DDT-D-King Grand Prix 2018] Konosuke Takeshita vs Jiro Kuroshio

[Maciej]

Jiro gives an incredible, optimistic babyface performance here, and the crowd eats it up (as did I). He pulls out some fun stuff on the mat, and his commitment to his jacket is my favorite love story in wrestling. The last few minutes here might seem like overkill, but just when it seems like the typical finish where the underdog has busted out everything he can to no avail, we get a twist, so I think that overkill kind of works. I'm probably in the minority here but I liked it even better than the also quite good Bailey/Ishikawa match on the same card. ****

[soup23]

I liked this a good bit although a bit below Bailey vs Ishikawa. I thought it was neat to see Jiro who is the top babyface in W1 do a performance here that felt very underneath and underdog oriented. It felt like a sequence in the mid 2000's when someone big at IWA-MS or JAPW would debut in ROH. Takeshita played his role well as someone that exuded overconfidence and really toed that line into becoming cocky and unlikable on purpose. The flash roll up and pin got a great reaction from the crowd and from me. ***3/4