Cero Reviews DDT Never Mind 2021 In Yoyogi

[cero2k]

DDT Never Mind 2021 In Yoyogi
December 26, 2021
Yoyogi National Stadium 2nd Gymnasium, Yoyogi, Japan

** Pre-show **

Antonio Honda & Hideki Okatani vs. Toru Owashi & Yukio Naya - 4/10
Ok match, perfectly ok for a pre-show opener. Naya pinned Okatani with a backdrop.

DDTeeeen!! Special Single Match
Illusion vs. Vent Vert Jack - 5/10
These two are part of the DDTeens program. They're really good for their age and level, but they're still just mostly doing big moves. These kids are mostly underage, and I think that's the main reason why they all have masks, to be able to grow up anonymously and so that they can eventually take whatever persona later on, but when you compare them with the Young Lions' program, it's interesting to see the matches that both groups put on on their first days. Anyway, VVJack defeated Illusion with a Tlaloc aka Meteora.

Sanshiro Takagi vs. Maku Donaruto - 6/10
Well, where to start? If there was someone that could take on Maku Donaruto, it was Coronel Sanders from KFC. In Japan, especially during the XMAS season, eating KFC is a huge tradition that has taken over, so it wasn't that surprising that Takagi would dress up as Sanders for the match and get the win.

The match itself was mostly weapon spots and Donaruto being a sex addict. Takagi won with a Kentucky Bomb.

** Main Card **

Akito & Yuki Ishida vs. Romance Dawn (Shota & Soma Takao) - 7/10
Really good match with some really good wrestling, but there wasn't much to the match per say. I really liked everything that Akito did with Takao and Shota, and Ishida for that matter has a promising future in-ring wise, but that was as far as the match went for me. Finish saw Shota pin Ishida with a Frog Splash.

KO-D Six Man Tag Team Championship Match
Pheromones (Danshoku Dieno, Yuki Iino & Yumehito Imanari) (c) vs. Shinya Aoki, Super Sasadango Machine & Yumiko Hotta - 4/10
Prior to the match, SSD had a slide presentation talking about Aoki's interest and platonic love on Hotta and explained that the match was scientifically designed so that Hotta and Aoki would end up together.

The match itself was a bit of everything. We obviously saw Dieno and Iino spread their pheromones everywhere, much to the disgust of Hotta. Aoki was starstruck by Hotta, so he lost concentration on a couple of times, especially when they came in contact. At the end, Pheromones had control of the match over Aoki and Hotta, so SSD sacrificed himself to save them, but IIno and Dieno rolled him into a submission and he gave in.

Post-match - Hotta put on the belt that Aoki had made for her and they walked to the back together, not as a couple, but as a team. Hotta hopes to help Aoki become a better man.

Judgement 2022 Announcement - Andreza The Giant Panda is returning at Judgement March 20.

Shuji Kondo vs. Kazuki Hirata - 5.5/10
Kondo came out while Hirata was halfway through his entrance, but it being Hirata, "half way" is already too much. Kondo worked over Hirata for most of the match until Hirata had a comeback, got a couple of good near falls, only to fall to Kondo's King Kong Lariat. Ok match, but definitely felt like filler. If not for Kondo, this should had been on the pre-show instead of Maku Donaruto's match.

NEO Itoh Respect Army (Chris Brookes, Maki Itoh & Minoru Suzuki) vs. Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai & Yukio Sakaguchi) - 8/10
This was great in so many levels, both in-ring action for the workrate nerds, but also for those like me that have a soul and like fun wrestling.

Story of the match was that after his defeat years ago, Sakaguchi was ready to get his win back from Suzuki, and of course, Suzuki was ready to beat up Sakaguchi once again. They were so laser focused on each other, that nothing could stop them from going after each other. Higuchi and Saki had to drag and pull Sakaguchi to his corner in order to have him tag out when he was getting his ass kicked, and on the other side, Itoh straight up slapped Suzuki because he wasn't working along with her and Brookes.

Eventually the match did come down to Saki and Higuchi taking on Brookes and Itoh in all the possible combinations, the interesting one being Itoh trying to headbutt Higuchi and Suzuki himself rooting for Itoh to keep pushing forward. The match would end up going back to Suzuki and Sakaguchi, with the former getting the win with a GSP. If you've ever wondered what Suzuki doing comedy can be like, this had a couple of spots to give you a taste.

Post-match - While Suzuki tends to attack everyone and I shouldn't look past it, Suzuki kicked both Saki and Higuchi when he tried to attack Sakaguchi again after the win. Higuchi got face to face with Suzuki in a way that could 100% lead to a singles match between them, it may also lead to me having a heart attack of the sheer awesomeness that match would be.

The 37KAMIINA (MAO, Shunma Katsumata, Toi Kojima & Yuki Ueno) vs. Burning (Jun Akiyama, Tetsuya Endo, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku) - 7/10
Now that Akiyama has taken Endo as his protégé and they've created this new Burning stable, Akiyama gave Endo the robe he wore to the FINAL BURNING show, when Akiyama faced Kenta Kobashi in the latter's retirement match. Akiyama made sure to get it on camera.

The match was great, but it also felt like a match that was there to certain people over and get everyone in the card. It was mostly a showcase of Endo and a little bit of Ueno. Koroku paired up with Kojima, Akiyama paired up with Katsumata for the most part, and the rest where mostly mixing it up. At the end, Endo pinned Kojima with an SSP, kinda telling you that this wasn't even about setting up a challenge or anything. I don't know if BURNING will evolve from where it's at right now, but I'd love to see a 4th strong member, above a rookie, to have a proper 4v4 match with the 37K down the road.

Endo is still in amazing shape, but you can tell he's trying to put on some size.

DDT Universal Championship Match
Daisuke Sasaki (c) (w/ MJ Paul) vs. Masahiro Takanashi - 8.5/10
Takanashi came out backed up by most of the male roster of Choco Pro, including Akki, Hoshitango, Shino, Brookes, Honda, and most importantly, for post-match reasons, Minoru Fujita.

This was one of my favorite matches of the night. Takanashi's real life story in the last couple of years felt more and more like he was winding down, he had leg surgery, recovered, and in that time, has been helping out in ChocoPro more and backing up Brookes. Fast forward, he didn't even challenge Sasaki, it was Brookes that nominated him and pushed him to chase the title. He had all of ChocoPro's support behind him, we even saw that promo from Emi Sakura saying that Taka would win the title and bring it to AEW.

The whole reason why that story was important was because the match revolved around Sasaki going after that repaired leg and Taka having to work through the pain and manage to take out Sasaki's leg too to even the odds. Without a leg to stand on, Sasaki kept him down and started going for the head submission, eventually getting the win with a crossface. The bad aspect of this match was that Paul had a couple of interferences that made the babyfaces look a bit bad because they either didn't do anything, or got their asses kicked, particularly Shino and Akki. The one guy that made a difference was Fujita, who finally took out Paule.

Post-match - Most likely looking for revenge for his interference, Sasaki called out Fujita and nominated him as his next opponent.

KO-D Tag Team Championship Match
DISASTER BOX (HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura) (c) vs. The Bodyguard & Yuji Hino - 7.5/10
Really good match, all based around Hino and Bodyguard being way bigger and stronger than HARA and Yoshimura. The story was basic, at first they couldn't, until they could, and HARA and Yoshimura eventually overcame the strength of their opponents. The whole match was built to make Yoshimura the big hero, he survived a couple of double team moves and paired up with Bodyguard at the end, taking him down a couple of times and getting the win at the end with a Lariat.

Post-match - Bodyguard acknowledged Yoshimura as a worthy opponent. Hino didn't directly, but walked away accepting the loss.

Takeshita vs Okabayashi Video Package - Great. Scored by Dragon Ball's WE GOTTA POWER theme. Takeshita talked about going against his most powerful opponent.

KO-D Openweight Championship Match
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Yuji Okabayashi - 9/10
The story behind this match was really good and appropriate for the match-up, but it being so similar to the tag title bout made it kinda weird for me. Takeshita talked about Okabayashi as the big muscle men from manga, he referenced someone that I didn't recognize, but it was a similar comparison to characters like Yu Yu Hakusho's Toguro or Kengan Ashura's Julius Reinhold. In the build up to this match, we saw on several occasions that Okabayashi had the power to block many of Takeshita's moves, and Takeshita ain't a little guy.

The match itself saw Okabayashi perfectly work both the Unstoppable Force and Immovable Object roles, but against a man that could already be considered a force in itself in Takeshita. We would see Take take on Okabayashi and stumble him, but the latter would retaliate and completely take down Take. Later on, Take would make a big comeback and damage Okabayashi enough for Take to suplex Okabayashi around, only for him to wake up again and retaliate and once again bring down Take, but as they went on and on, eventually Take was able to bring him down a notch, locked in a Plus Ultra that Okabayashi wasn't able to break, and Take won via submission.

Post-match - Takeshita and the rest of the 37K close the show with a promo.

OVERALL THOGHTS
As the final big show of the year for DDT (not counting the NYE show), this felt like it delivered, at least inside the ring. The stories coming in where simple, it was mostly basic challenges and odds for the champions to overcome. Most of the comedy stuff felt like it was just there for filler, skippable for the haters.