Cero Reviews DDT Judgement 2022 - DDT 25th Anniversary Show

[cero2k]

DDT Judgement 2022 - DDT 25th Anniversary Show
March 21, 2022
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan

**Pre-show**

Toi Kojima, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Yuki Ishida vs. Burning (Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku) & Ilusion - 6.5/10
Good match, most of them are part of the rookie DDT roster, so they all did good basic wrestling with each other. There's not a time that watching guys like Okada or Koroku is not a treat. Okada won with a Fisherman Buster on Ishida.

Delayed Entrance Tag Team Battle Royal
Gorgeous Matsuno & Gota Ihashi vs. Yuji Hino & Yukio Naya vs. Seiya Morohashi & Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Shota & Yasu Urano vs. Andreza Giant Panda & Super Sasadango Machine vs. DAMNATION T.A (Minoru Fujita & MJ Paul) - 6.5/10
This match became a big lad's match really quickly. The teams of Seiya/Tomojiko started against Shota and Urano, but right after them, we got DAMNATION, and Hino/Naya. Next was the Gorgeous Matsuno and Gota team, so I'll skip that, but then came Andreza, and it don't get bigger than that. Matsuno was so scared of Andreza, he tapped out to himself to get out of the match.

Final two teams were Ganbare team and DAMNATION, the latter getting the win after some powerbombs. Naya needs a haircut.

**Main Show**

Opening Ceremomy - Imabayashi is out there for the opening introductions and ceremony. Comedian Ryota Yamasato came out for the Annual Anal Explosion, but complained that he had to do it. Sasadango came out with a Powerpoint presentation to explain to him why it was important that he'd go through with the Anal Explosion ceremony. Dieno came out since he's the the official Anal Explosion expert to carry out the act. After much more complaining by Yamasato, Hoshitango came out and forced him down. After some rehearsals blowing up bombs on Yamasato's butt, we finally had the Anal Explosion go off, meaning DDT STATTOOOO!

Afterwards, they played a video package recapping the 25 years of DDT, and it was great, just tons of memories.

KO-D Ten Person Tag Team Championship Match
DISASTER BOX (Kazuki Hirata & Toru Owashi), Antonio Honda & Yoshihiko (c) vs. Suicide Boyz (MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba), GENTARO, Poison Sawada JULIE & Takashi Sasaki (w/Naomi Susan) - 5.5/Fun
While this is a title match for the ten man titles, this is also a match between DDT legends versus current DDT roster members that are also kinda old. The reason this is 4-vs-5 is because during the pandemic, when the champions won the titles, they had been turned into 8-person titles to not crowd the ring due to COVID protocols.

The match was mostly going through the schticks of Hirata and Honda. Early in the match, Susan and Sawada JULIE tried to turn Hirata into a snake, and did managed to get the poison in Hirata's mouth. Later in the match, when Honda was telling his Gon The Fox story and overcoming Sawada's poison magic, Snake-Hirata came down and joined the DDT legends and they all danced together. At the end, the match broke down and the legends all ganged up on Honda for the pin by MIKAMI. Old timers gonna be staying around for a while.

Maya Yukihi vs. Saki Akai - 7/10
This was really good, I don't know if they agreed to go stiff, or if it happened naturally, or if they were that good to make everything look stiff, but whatever it was, it really made the match better, especially for Akai, who's kicks usually look weak. The match saw both women trade momentum, hit most of their signature moves, until Akai dropped Yukihi with a Quetzalcoatl pin.

Post-match - Both women showed respect for each other and embraced.

I'm Sorry Match
Sanshiro Takagi vs. Michael Nakazawa - 6/Fun
I'm Sorry stipulation is the same as an I Quit match, but instead you have to say I'm Sorry. Nakazawa is doing the whole 'AEW producer" gimmick here.

When it comes to Takagi wacky matches, I felt this wasn't the greatest. His match with Hyper Misao the prior night at TJPW Grand Princess '22 was far better. This one had a lot of stiff spots, most of them felt like they were hitting the greatest hits like the bike into the tower of chairs, the constant plastic container spots, one of which cut off Nakazawa's back badly, and Nakazawa's thong claw. The best thing about the match was that Nakazawa, being the wimp that he is, wanted to say sorry a couple of minutes before the end of the match, but Takagi didn't let him, so we had a couple of spots with Nakazawa just trying to say sorry until Takagi was done torturing him.

Post-match - Nakazawa told Takagi that he had been trying to help DDT and got a surprise for Takagi. A video played with Christopher Daniels, announcing a partnership between AEW and DDT. Just in case you wanted to see more Japanese talent wasted on DARK and getting busted open by indie rookies.

King of Street Wrestling Announcement - We're getting a ROJO Wrestling Tournament with Takagi, Shunma Katsumata, Chris Brookes, Onryo from Triple 6, Suzuki Suzu, Abdullah Kobayashi, and a couple of names that I didn't recognize.

Isami Kodaka & Yukio Sakaguchi vs. The 37KAMIINA (Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Ueno) - 7/10
Good match, Sakaguchi and Kodaka are not a great natural team, so we mostly had separate pairings between Ueno and Sakaguchi, and Kodaka versus Katsu. The finish was what I felt it was a bit weak, with Ueno hitting a standing Shining Wizard and the WR, but the action wasn't all that high energy and the other two were nowhere to be seen. Kinda felt they never hit second gear. Good wrestling nonetheless.

LiLiCo Retirement Match
Akito, LiLiCo & Ryohei Odai vs. Pheromones (Danshoku Dino, Yuki Ino & Yumehito Imanari) - 4/10, but a fantastic post-match.
LiLiCo is a Film critic and actress, who has worked some matches with DDT in the last 7 or so years, she recently announced her formal retirement, which was interrupted by the Pheromones. She started training with Akito and her husband Odai for this final hurrah.

If you've watch a Pheromones, or just a Dieno match, before, then you know this was a 15 minute consensual sexual harassment and HR violation. The match was built around LiLiCo being older, Odai not being a trained wrestler and being isolated from his corner, and then the comeback where Odai stood up to Pheromones. At the end, LiLiCo ended up tapping out to Dieno's kneebar after hitting the Danshoku driver. Akito was literally there to help carry the action and help Odai and LiLiCo hit their time and spots.

Post-match - Dieno cut a promo putting over LiLiCo and saying that it doesn't matter what people say, she is and will always be a Pro Wrestler. Forced her to stand up on her own strength as a pro wrestler, only to attack her again. Pheromones were getting ready to further humiliate LiLiCo when Andreza The Giant Panda came out for the save. Andreza took out the Pheromones, allowing LiLiCo to have her retirement match.

After all the chaos, the actual retirement was kinda moving, they ran down all of LiLiCo's career highlights. Takagi came out to thank and honor LiLiCo. At the end, LiLiCo had some words for the crowd, she could barely get through it between the tears. She talked about always wanting to be a wrestler, but she came into the business too late and her body just wasn't there anymore, but she still have the greatest time as a pro wrestler. She had her 10 bell salute, her final ring announcement, and we all cried together.

After the ceremony, Odai had some nice words for LiLiCo, about how proud he was of her and her conviction to get better and have one more match after her injuries. Odai and his band JUNretsu sang for LiLiCo. The song is called Proposal, so at the end of the song, Odai once again proposed to LiLiCo. LiLiCo's final words were "I'm back to being a normal girl, " as she left her entrance wings in the ring.

We need an intermission after that emotional ceremony.

Kenta Kobashi Speech - Kobashi came out to talk about the main event tonight and give start to the second half of the show.

Jun Akiyama 30th Anniversary Match
Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori vs. Eruption (Hideki Okatani & Kazusada Higuchi) - 7/10
I kinda feel like Takao Omori being here from AJPW should be a bigger deal, but it's Omori, he's not exactly a big name in All Japan anymore, not at a level that him working a match with DDT feels special. Even though Shuji Ishikawa constantly works DDT shows, he feels like a bigger deal when he comes around, but hey, it's about who Akiyama wanted to tag with for his big 30th Anniversary match.

Match was good, but I thought the layout of the match wasn't all that perfect. First off, they had Okatani be the babyface in peril, making the old timers be the ones getting some heat that no one was giving them. Then they had Omori constantly be on the losing end against Higuchi, since they were saving Higuchi and Akiyama for later in the match, and so it kinda looked like Akiyama brought in someone that kept getting his ass kicked. At the end, it just came down to Akiyama taking out Okatani with the Exploder '98. If anything, this was all about Okatani looking good in defeat.

it was nice seeing Okada and Omori reunite after the match.

DDT Universal Championship Three Way Hardcore Match
Daisuke Sasaki (c) vs. Jun Kasai vs. MAO - 6.5/10
This was a really choreographed weapons match, with really low energy. About half way through the match, Sasaki and MAO were already busted open and wrestling really slow from it. The spots were not exactly innovative, but they did bring out a couple of weapons I hadn't seen before, like a 8ft beam that MAO used as a sword. Aside from that, we had skewers, plastic boxes, ladders, chairs, barbed wire baseball bats, and kendo sticks, so the usual of a Kasai match. At the end, Kasai did bring out his saw and Sasaki a guitar. Finish saw MAO and Sasaki wrestle in a ladder bridge held by a thousand people, where MAO hit a driver off onto a table for the win. MAO is the new Universal champion.

Post-match - MAO cut his winner's promo when Nakazawa interrupted him and challenge for a title shot. He argued that if he beats him, he will have a win over an AEW wrestler and that could bring the title some worldwide notoriety. MAO accepted for March 27.

KO-D Tag Team Championship Match
DISASTER BOX (HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura) (c) vs. Calamari Drunken Kings (Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takanashi) - 7/10
For the time it got, the wrestlers, the action, and the position of the card, I was disappointed by this match. They're all great wrestlers, but truth is, Masa is more of a story underdog wrestler, which wasn't his role here, where he mostly played a cheating wrestler. Brookes is good, but he's not really known to be a 3rd gear type of guy, so as good as HARASHIMA and Yoshimura can be, they can only go as far and fast as CDK would be able to follow. Match just mostly kept building intensity, but before they could really go hard, Brookes locked in the Octopus Stretch on Yoshimura and tapped him out.

Post-match - Brookes cut his winner's promo, all in nihongo, his studying is paying off. Naya and Hino came out and had a little staredown with CDK.

KO-D Openweight Championship Match
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Tetsuya Endo - 9.5/10
This is the story of two men that came up together in the business, they've been champions together, they've wrestle many times and traded wins and loses many times, but Endo has never been able to defeat Takeshita while Take is the champ. Now, as part of BURNING, protégé of Akiyama, Endo looks to finally break that bad spell, but he's facing Takeshita who is going through the best point of his career, he's bigger and better than he's ever been before. Commentary sold it like the pinnacle of their rivalry.

Story was that Endo just had the technique advantage, he controlled early on, but if pushed Takeshita to take control after a big DDT. From there on, Takeshita started to build momentum and go on an onslaught focusing on his head, because at the end of the day, he still bigger and hits stronger. Endo slowly started to crawl back into a comeback, and from there on, it was back and forth, but Takeshita's strikes just hit harder, pushing Endo to have to pull out everything from the arsenal, he was going Sasaki's crossface and TITS With Diamonds, and as both men even started using Akiyama's inherited moves, it was Endo who hit two Burning Star Presses to finally put down Takeshita.

Post-match - Endo has some words for Takeshita, pretty much telling him that he despised him int he most friendliest way, and that he'll keep going because he can't allow Takeshita to be the best. Afterwards, Endo said he'll put DDT on top and asked for everyone to keep supporting DDT and TJPW going forward in their big anniversary years.

Afterwards, BURNING joined Endo to celebrate in the ring, and after some other ceremonies, we saw Endo and the rest of BURNING walk to the back, where they were suddenly surprised by the whole roster, waiting for Endo for the big congratulations and photo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
In the most DDT way, this was a great show. Some great and fun wrestling mixed from bell-to-bell. I did think the second half slumped a bit. Main event aside, I think the second half matches failed to capture their full potential, it was good, but I just felt like it could had been better. Nonetheless, one of the bigger shows for DDT and it delivered in the grandeur.