By Mark Worrall@hoohoowozza
TOKYO SUMIDA SPORTS HEALTH CENTRE POOL
Ten men, five tag teams and a swimming pool. Sounds bizarre, it was! My thoughts.
CHRIS BROOKES/MIZUKI WATASE def. DAISUKE SASAKI/TETSUYA ENDO, KONSUKE TAKESHITA/SHUNMA KATSUMATA, HARASHIMA/KAZUKI HIRATA and MICHAEL NAKAZAWA/GOTA IHASHI
Unlike his debut match, Chris Brookes got his entrance music played for the VOD on Universe has he entered poolside along with partner Watase. Most participants entered sporting different guises so to speak! Nakazawa wore his AEW shirt just to remind folk that he is a part of this new company. Takeshita was surrounded by a rubber ring and Sasaki was completely dressed in rain gear and immediately made for the referee soaking him from the off with a bucket of water! This was utterly bizarre, the whole concept of the match! Ten of DDT’s best mixing it up in a swimming pool, actually using wrestling moves known to them, complete with signature moves in spots that were either ruthless, irresponsible or downright nuts! The setting, a swimming baths, in Tokyo that resembled any swimming baths around the world, swim lanes, slides, a bridge, paddling pool, they were all here, and used throughout the match! Floats were used as weapons from the bell as everyone raced to grab their foam friends, beating the opposition ruthlessly, who sold their beatings as if been battered with chairs. Sasaki, avoiding the pool for some time was finally back-bodied into the pool by Takeshita with Sasaki taking revenge out on the poor referee who was barraged by Sasaki whose aim was to completely cover the referee with water.
As the madness continued, an actual swimming race took place between non-participants of the match including Mao who always seemed to be in the picture, regardless of him not actually being in the match! Whilst Sasaki continued to use brooms to rake the backs of his foes, the actual match took to the slide with Mizuki being sent down the slide nailing his own partner Brookes as the two collided at the slide’s end! One by one the participants made the trip down the slide with Chris Brookes, returning to the top of the slide locked a figure four leg lock on Shunma Katsumata which was a fete in itself before, still locked in the hold both wrestlers found themselves going down the slide unlocking as the water broke their downward spiral! Poor Nakazawa felt the worst of the slide after Sasaki pile-drived him at the top sending him too down the spiral surface to the water.
As you may imagine there was no control to this match, and why would there be, although there must have been a plan of some sorts? A human centipede on the edge of the pool was quickly broken up after Higuchi, somewhat of a standby turned the whole Centipede into the drink. Mizuki looking to play stepping stones on the abandoned floats quickly fell no doubt banging the side of his body against the pool edge and then followed a terrific cutter from Brookes, leaping from the pool side onto Takeshita who stood unsuspectingly in the pool. This was a great looking spot that made Brooks look great! Harashima took to locking a surfboard on KO-D Openweight champion Tetsuya Endo, which was quite fitting considering where this match was taking place! A multi man suplex ensued and then, yes it had to happen, Kazuki Hirata, with glasses, in the pool hit his spot as his music played and the swimming baths was alight with the sounds of ‘Tokyo go’ as Hirata did a one man synchronized dance for everyone to enjoy! As the match took to the bridge various participants met their doom, falling to the water in various ways that included seeing Sasaki taking a brainbuster from Takeshita into the pool which was awesome. However this match belonged to Chris Brookes who hit the ‘Praying Mantis Bomb’ on Michael Nakazawa to win for him and his partner Mizuki Watase in this bizarre match! Chris took to the mic postmatch, declared that he had won the pool match today and will win the KO-D Openweight title at Korakuen Hall.
KO-D OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
TETSUYA ENDO(C) def. SANSHIRO TAKAGI
Just when you thought all the madness was over, Sanshiro Takagi decided to cash in his ‘Right to challenge’ option and challenge Tetsuya Endo for his KO-D Openweight title! A disgruntled and tired looking Endo felt the beer can from Takagi has it smashed against his head several times before behind thrown into the bubble bath as Takagi took hold of Gota Ihashi and marched him unwillingly to the top of the slide and was forced down knocking down poor Endo at the base! Takagi then, riding the Dramatic Dream cycle hit Endo with a lariat, made a second attempt but was kicked off by Endo who subsequently power-bombed Takagi into the pool and continued to throw the cycle in afterwards! Endo took some control, locking Takagi in a single leg Boston crab into the padding pool! An Endo lunge met with Takagi patterned stunner that turned things back in his favour as Takagi filled the pool with a table and a ladder which saw Endo scooped onto the ladder by Takagi who followed up with a splash and a near fall! Both wrestlers then took to scrapping on the ladder with Endo hitting a superplex from the top of the ladder into the pool, that got a near fall as Endo and Takagi took to the bridge and such as in the first match, the bridge played a part in the ending as a torture rack from Endo on Takagi saw the latter fall to the pool, which Endo responded with a shooting star ‘splash’ on Takagi to retain!
Ridiculous can be used in many forms, usually not in the best form, however this was tremendous, bonkers and typical DDT. Loved all of this, all wrestlers seemed interested and all took to making the best of this. Wrestling can be taken far too seriously at times, and that is fine in most circumstances. For me there are many types of wrestling and this was one of them, just a show of hilarity, nonsense and still, a title match was offered and executed superbly with the right characters taking part with Endo defending his title in a way that would not be expected. A must watch show, only one hour fifteen minutes give or take a minute, easy to watch laugh out loud stuff that anyone can enjoy.
