[2009-06-28-DDT-King of DDT 2009] Munenori Sawa vs Sanshiro Takagi

[GSR]

Review courtesy of Makai Club #1.

Quote

I’ve always wondered how young(ish) Sanshiro Takagi was in the ring. I’ve liked some of the matches I’ve seen of his and he’s impressed me with his charisma and energy. But they were in tags. Here is a main event match against Munenori Sawa. Can he deliver? 

It’s very hard to blend styles together in a way that works and doesn’t feel disconnected with each other. But they do it very well. It uses the strengths of both wrestlers and incorporates it well into the match. Sawa brought the tricky strikes and submission holds while Takagi brawled and used weapons early on, which caused blood to be drawn around the body of both wrestlers. Takagi was awesome as the DDT hero. The crowd was all behind him and for a bigger guy, he’s great from working from beneath. The strike exchanges were really great. Sawa kept popping him in the jaw and neck, causing severe swelling and Takagi kept on going, hitting some hard slaps of his own. Loved the out of nowhere lariats he’d throw as well. It worked great as a hope spot and the visuals of sweat flying off him and Sawa on impact is always an appreciated one. Takagi isn’t athletically impressive but he has a knack of making it work. His STF looked really snug because of his weight and the strength he put behind the move. Sawa was really good as well. He had some great flair to his offence like his aforementioned strikes. But he had some crafty counters keeping the drama at a high level. A real high effort bout that the crowd was heavily invested in from bell to bell. ****1/4 

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