[2017-12-13-DDT DNA] Dai Suzuki vs Ryota Nakatsu & Kota Umeda & Ken Ohka

[aaeo_]

This is Suzuki's retirement match. DNA had this weird genre of matches where one of their trainees had come to the decision wrestling isn't for them, and so they retire and they do a match memorializing their two year career. This time, poor Dai Suzuki has to face three different wrestlers in single matches back to back (so this is technically three matches but I think they have to be taken as a whole). He obviously eats shit against all of them. Now, I don't think anyone in this is all that good other than Umeda but the whole thing is weirdly very  primal and good. As far as Suzuki goes, he's clearly not all that talented but his selling is fantastic in this, and as a result, his comebacks fucking rule even though he basically just does forearms and two suplexes.

Nakatsu stretches Suzuki, and Suzuki doesn't get much offense before tapping out. Umeda comes in second and he just shrugs off Suzuki's forearms and kicks him really hard. There's a minor botch of some sort, where Suzuki fails to lift Umeda up and they fall down, but Umeda, brilliant wrestler, covers it up by stomping Suzuki out. And it just goes on like that, until Suzuki gets a body lock and succesfully goes for a suplex which rocks Umeda. Umeda kicks out of everything that Suzuki has and eventually gets the upper hand again. Umeda giving up on the pin when he already had Suzuki beat to spitefully land another penalty kick was wild. Like he was pissed about getting suplexed by Suzuki.

Ohka is someone whose matches tend to be sort of skippable for me, but there's some settings where he's incredible, like the Tanahashi tag team match, and the Korakuen match against Takeshita where he just carries a barbed wire bat around for no reason. I knew this was one of those when he came out singing his theme along with the crowd while Suzuki was cowered in a corner dying after the previous two matches. Suzuki can barely get up at this point and Ohka goads him into a forearm exchange where Suzuki bumps for everything Ohka throws, like Ken Ohka is Kobashi in Noah killing the juniors or something. Ohka continues to beat down Suzuki until he gets suplexed! Suzuki tries a running forearm and climbing onto Ohka's back for a rear-naked choke and an octopus hold to get the win. But Ohka survives and muscles out of the octopus to the rope break. Ohka busts out a headbutt and then finishes Suzuki with the spear.

Each match is only about five minutes long but they all feel important, especially the last two. Really emotional throughout, good stuff. Suzuki went on to become a social worker according to Dramatic DDT, sincerely wish him all the best.