Puroresu Show Reviews

Show starts out with a referee finding Poison Sawada JULIE laid out by an unknown assailant in the back. Someone who I'm guessing is the DDT GM comes in and does something along the lines of wondering how the show will go on, then appologizing to the fans at home of any changes to the show that might have to be made.

After the show intro (which RULES by the way), we see a promo video highlighting Sanshiro Takagi's feud with Koji Ishinriki's Sumo faction. Which leads to the opening match.

Sanshiro Takagi & Shoji-Ko VS Koji Ishinriki & Super Sumo Machine
Takagi looked dissapointed as his partner's intro theme played, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be Shoji-Ko instead of Showa-Ko! Shoji-Ko is Shoichi Ichimaya dressed up as joshi wrestler Showa-Ko, and Showa accompanied him to ringside! This was clipped a bit and was hard to watch since it was mostly a big brawl out into the audience and then back into the ring, where the match comes to an end after yet more brawling.
Match Rating: *1/2

Iron Man Title: Danshoku Dino VS Glen Q. Spectre
This one was interesting. The match was billed as “American Boy Meets Japanese Gay Boy”, which probably tells you all you need to know about the match. Spectre is the guy with the iron ass, and Dino is the guy with the iron …err… wiener! The two really couldn’t play their homophobic mind games on each other since they had the same gimmick, so what you see is a lot of interesting (or disturbing) maneuvers being pulled off by the two, including Dino’s testicular claw and a submission hold by Spectre I can’t even begin to describe!
Match Rating: ***
Entertainment Value: YES, there is some!

Public Bath Boxing Match: Naomi Susan VS Rikio Shindo
This was really quick and both participants aren’t even actual wrestlers. I’m not even sure why they are doing this since I don’t follow DDT all that often. Anyways, the match involved a heel referee that helped Shindo get Susan’s towel off to reveal her bikini, and this sets off Susan as she decks and KOs both of them in a under a minute to win!
Match Rating: DUD

Preliminary Highlights of some of the earlier matches are shown in a cool video montage, including a very good bloody hardcore match between Mammoth Sasaki VS Takashi Sasaki, and clips of US indy worker Shirley Doe in action. Really wish they would give DDT a 2hr timeslot so they could air more stuff like this.

Elimination Match: MIKAMI, Tonomusaku Toba, KUDO, HERO! VS Takashi Sasaki, GENTARO, Yusuke Inokuma & Sensei
I’m really not sure what the backstory of this match is since I don’t understand Japanese, but I’m guessing it had something to do with Inokuma and Sensei (aka Poison Sawada JULIE in a very cheap disguise) trying to get encourage KUDO to join them or something, thing is, NO ONE could guess that the guy in the cheap surgeons mask, sunglasses and hairnet was JULIE! Even Sasaki & GENTARO! Bizarre indeed, but anyways, KUDO found out about Sensei true identity with help from the Suicide Boyz and HERO!, which lead to the following match, with Sasaki & GENTARO still not having a clue who their new mentor was!
The match was of course clipped, especially since it went over 30-minutes! It was a really fun match, with the face team determined to unmask Sensei, who himself did a hell of a job hiding his true identity by acting all cowardly and having to be protected by his teammates all the time. That is, until the very end where he had no choice but to fight back and use his “magic”! This was a really great match, and I wish it was complete, but that won’t happen unless DDT start airing live shows on PPV or something. Still, definitely worth checking out this one!
Match Rating: ***

Overall: It’s hard to understand what’s going on if you don’t follow DDT regularly, but it’s still pretty watchable cause of all the weird stuff that goes on. Sure, some of the in ring promos tend to drag a bit like a Triple H promo, but the bizarre video packages and fun matches more than make up for it. This show is definitely worth checking out!

Labels: DDT