The first Japanese promotion to stage their own show during Wrestlemania week was DDT, who ran their Coming to America show from La Boom in Queens on April 4th. DDT sold out their venue well in advance of the show, and didn’t disappoint their audience.
Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo vs. Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi – This was a fun tag match to start off the show, pitting the heelish DAMNATION team of Takao and Endo against the face team from Shuten-doji. The crowd got really behind Sakaguchi, and Takanashi played a good face in peril, while Endo broke out some of his impressive highspots, and Takao bullied Takanishi when he could get away with it. Endo got the win for his team with a submission to kick off the start of a good night for DAMNATION.
Winners: Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo
Iron Man Battle Royale – Before the show even started Makoto Oishi pinned Saki Akai, so she no longer entered this match as champion. Kazuki Hirata entered this match first, and the crowd absolutely loved his Tokyo dance. Saki Akai entered second, and clearly was annoyed that she had been caught out by Oishi, which she took out on Hirata once the bell rang. The third entrant was Kikutaro, but he was stopped on the way to the ring by a doctor who took his blood pressure, then announced that according to the NY State Athletic Commission Kikutaro was unable to compete due to high blood pressure. Colt Cabana entered fourth, and initially offered to give Akai a free shot because he didn’t think she was a threat as a woman, which he immediately learnt was a mistake. Mizuki Watase came in next, wearing his full suit, and proceeded to hit a coast-to-coast dropkick in a waistcoat. Oishi was the next entrant, as the current Iron Man champion, followed by Yuu making her surprise return to DDT for this match. The final competitor was the legendary doll Yoshihiko, who went viral a few years ago after matches with Kota Ibushi. Yoshihiko was definitely the highlight of this match – especially in her segments with Yuu – and even won the title by pinning Oishi. Hirata had managed to lay low outside the ring, and pinned Yoshihiko immediately to win the battle royale. However, Saki Akai, who had been eliminated earlier, came back in to the ring to hit her finisher on Hirata and walk out as the Iron Man champion again.
Winner: Saki Akai
Harashima & Kazusada Higuchi vs. Akito & Ethan Page vs. Shigehiro Irie & Jason Kincaid – Triple threat tag matches are often a bit underwhelming, and following the craziness of the Iron Man battle royale this match started out a bit flat. However, it quickly picked up, and all three teams worked hard to make it a really fun, high paced match. The crowd were really behind Irie and HARASHIMA, but everyone got in on the high spots, especially Kincaid who did some crazy high flying to offset his smaller size. The sections between HARASHIMA and Akito were the highlight, but it was also fun to see the heavyweight showdown between Irie and Higuchi. HARASHIMA picked up the win by pinning Akito with a Somato.
Winner: HARASHIMA & Kazusada Higuchi
Weapon Rumble in USA: Sanshiro Takagi vs. MAO – This match was highly anticipated after their weapon rumble match at Peter Pan last year. The stipulation involved each competitor choosing three weapons each, which would enter at randomised intervals. The first weapon was Antonio Honda dressed as Hulk Hogan, which drew a lot of boos from the live crowd. This was followed up by plastic boxes, then a trash can, a bike that Takagi cycled into MAO’s knee, a box of Lego that was used to slam people onto, a toilet that Takagi DDT’d MAO headfirst into, and finally Chinsuke Nakamura. Chinsuke hit Takagi with a low blow to the delight of the crowd, but then turned on MAO and also hit him with a Kinshasa. MAO tried to hit a splash off the top turnbuckle through a plastic box, but Takagi got his knees up, and then finished off MAO with a powerbomb through plastic boxes. This match was absolutely crazy fun, and definitely worth watching just to see all the weapons.
Winner: Sanshiro Takagi
Miyu Yamashita vs. Maki Itoh – The Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling match saw the Princess of Princess Champion Yamashita take on her opponent from the big January 4th show Itoh in a rematch. Itoh has an outrageous amount of charisma, and was very over with the crowd here, particularly when she asked them who the cutest in the world was (Itoh chan!) I don’t think this match quite lived up to their January 4th match, but it was still very good, with enough hope spots for Itoh to avoid making it feel like a foregone conclusion that Yamashita would win. Eventually she did though, hitting a Crash Rabbit Heat to put Itoh down for the three count. Very good showcase for the women though, and the crowd loved it.
Winner: Miyu Yamashita
Danshoku Dieno & Antonio Honda vs. Joey Ryan & Royce Isaacs – Firmly back into the comedy match camp for this one. In his Japanese entrance Dieno normally just kisses guys without asking, but here they asked people to raise their hand if they wanted a kiss, which felt more appropriate. Lots of penis related jokes in this match, particularly Joey Ryan trying to get Dieno to touch his dick, Dieno refusing, and later in the match flipping Ryan from the dick with his ass cheeks. The highlight of this match was Honda’s Gon the Fox story, which he delivered in perfect English, with the punchline that the fox had gone to the Empire State Big Dick, rather than the Empire State Building. Ryan eventually picked up the win for his team after hitting Honda with a super kick, following a lot of ass related shenanigans from Dieno. This was a fun match that really brought the authentic spirit of DDT to the US.
Winner: Joey Ryan & Royce Isaacs
KO-D Openweight Title: Konosuke Takeshita (C) vs. Daisuke Sasaki – This was a rematch from DDT Judgement, when Takeshita nearly killed Sasaki on the way to beating him for the Openweight Title. Sasaki brought Soma Takao and Tetsuya Endo with him to the ring, although they didn’t get involved in the match. This match was another really good showing between the two men, with less crazy spots, although they did the Sasaki dives through the ropes, Takeshita catches him and then suplexes him onto the ring apron spot again. Sasaki really heeled it up in this match by going after Takeshita’s leg, and exploiting the referee to avoid some of the champion’s moves. I expected Takeshita to win here, but Sasaki surprised me by beating Takeshita after two low blows and then a Sasaki Huricanrana. I might have preferred this match to their Judgement match actually, since it was a bit shorter and tighter.
Winner: Daisuke Sasaki
As Sasaki celebrated in the ring with Takao and Endo, Endo suddenly hit him with a lariat and cashed in his Anytime Anywhere gauntlet to challenge for the title. Sasaki tried to put up a fight but he was exhausted after the title match, and Endo hit a Tetsuya In The Sky, followed by a Shooting Star Press to win the title, and finally become KO-D Champion. Afterwards Endo explained that “cute girls made him do it,” and it seemed like DAMNATION won’t be splitting up just yet.
Finally, as the show was wrapping up Makoto Oishi snuck back out and pinned Saki Akai with a rollup to become the new Iron Man Champion. His joy was short-lived however, as Hirata then pinned him to become the new champ, and then Maki Itoh pinned him. Finally Danshoku Dieno had the last word by hitting the Danshoku Driver on Itoh and walking out of NY as the 1,358th Iron Man Champion.
Final Thoughts
This was as close to a perfect show as DDT could have done. All the matches were good, and they felt like a properly authentic display of what makes DDT so unique – excellent comedy and excellent wrestling. The crowd were totally behind the show too, which definitely helped add to the atmosphere. Hopefully lots of new viewers saw this show and are tempted to check out DDT’s streaming service at https://www.ddtpro.com/universe. If not, go out of your way to find it because it was excellent. Sanshiro Takagi mentioned that they were planning to come back to the US next year, and I imagine they will need an even bigger arena next time.
