[2015-02-15-DDT-Saitama Super DDT] HARASHIMA vs Kota Ibushi

[aaeo_]

Starts off with some intricate matwork, which is always great to see from HARASHIMA, even though you know this match is going long and will steer pretty far away from "technical" wrestling. He starts working Ibushi's body with punches and stomps, which I liked. He picks Kota out of mid-air with a dropkick. Sadly, he stopped focusing on that immediately afterwards as they went outside the ring. I did think Ibushi walking away because he wants to fight Hara on the entrance stage was fantastic. Ibushi does a moonsault off a large screen before they climb back to the ring. Later on, he finds a way to counter the somato with a double foot stomp, which I still don't really understand. There's a truly fantastic strike exchange which builds from the two trading forearms, and has one of those great Ibushi open palm combos. Ibushi catches HARASHIMA when he tries to do the diving somato and beats him with the phoenix plex, which he'd done in their previous 2009 match. I thought the middle part, everything between the two of them going outside and that strike exchange, was a bit lacking since they just sold and did big moves and that's my least favorite type of wrestling, but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of this match.