[2012-05-04-DDT] Masa Takanashi vs Yuji Hino

[aaeo_]

This seems to be a very weird matchup to main event Korakuen, but it's a good match! It is very matwork heavy, which works because it turns out Hino is good at that. Takanashi isn't so much, he does the wrestling thing where he fumbles a limb so there's a couple of seconds where he has to start doing whatever he's doing over, but it's still good enough. Takanashi trying to hurt the leg and Hino shrugging it off is a nice touch. Being outmatched, Takanashi tries to cheat any number of ways, and he gets the win off a ref bump and a low blow, but the DDT AUTHORITY FIGURE restarts the match. Hino kills Takanashi at the beginning of this "second" match but eventually, Takanashi finally hurts Hino's leg and he works on that.I wouldn't have expected to enjoy a 30 minute Takanashi match but I think there's a lot of thought that went into this. I liked Takanashi knowing he can't beat Hino and so he tries to work a limb, and then tries to cheat, and neither really work at first, and then they work briefly and then he loses.