[2019-01-27-DDT] Daisuke Sasaki & HARASHIMA vs Shinya Aoki & Konosuke Takeshita

[aaeo_]

I remain endlessly fascinated and entertained by Aoki's run. He goes to the top rope in this match! He takes a chair shot! This is a match between the four singles title match participants at Judgement, DDT's first (second if you count MUSCLEMANIA [musclemania!]) Ryogoku show this year. The first half of the match has a slow build-up and serves as a preview for the two Sumo Hall matches, there's the methodical technical wrestling between HARASHIMA and Aoki, and the counter-fest between Takeshita and Sasaki. Both are good. Then, Takeshita gets his leg worked over again here and he's still selling like he always has, which is an issue and I hope it's not a focus of their next match. That caused this match to fall apart for me a bit, despite a handful of interesting moments in the second half.

I gotta say, I really liked Sasaki opposite Aoki. I think Sasaki did a better job than most of Aoki's DDT opponents, because for the most part he just turtled up and tried to defend any submission attempts through rope breaks or countering into a crossface. I thought that was a smart detail. Aoki hits a gorgeous flying armbar on him early on, as well.