[2018-01-28-DDT] Shuji Ishikawa vs HARASHIMA

[superkix]

Ishikawa's already off to a hell of a 2018 and this match, given the technical difficulties, was pretty great. I really love the role HARASHIMA has established for himself as the scrappy aging ace who has quite a mean streak behind that smile. I dug his early matwork and thought it worked well against Ishikawa with the added double stomps. On the outside, Ishikawa stops his momentum by lobbing an unfolded chair at him before hitting the double stomp from the guardrail to set up the backwork. After the ropes break, they improvise with Ishikawa continuing to focus on the back and while it's a little slow, they pick it back up after Ishikawa swings HARASHIMA into the chairs. Then they start hurling bombs at one another, with HARASHIMA's selling being especially great while they're slugging it out, throwing these desperation headbutts to try and down the Big Dog. After he survives the Splash Mountain, HARASHIMA looks like hell with the bloodshot eyes and the look on Ishikawa's face like "what in the hell?" was terrific. Some really brutal knees from Ishikawa to close it down, finishing HARA off with the Giant Slam.