On first viewing, HARASHIMA vs. Takeshita was a pretty awesome match, with a good mix of psychology, selling, and high-impact offense. I'm a big fan of Takeshita, no doubt, but I thought he looked like the total package here, working with a little more 'tude against the old "ace of DDT" and building to his German suplex finish via his focused attacks on HARASHIMA. Some of the execution was off -- leave Croyt's Wrath to Kenny Omega (ditto Ishii). He seems to be the only one who can pull it off seamlessly. And while I'm nitpicking, some of the selling gets shelved on both sides for the sake of high spots...but Takeshita does a good job of bringing it full circle, especially in the final minutes. While he excels at the physical sell, HARASHIMA's facials were terrific as always. Alright, let's dig in.
Love Takeshita pursing his lips and shaking his head at HARASHIMA's handshake offer like a brat, After the initial touch-and-go, Takeshita pops HARASHIMA with an elbow, DDTs him onto the apron, then brainbusters him on the floor. He starts tenderizing the back of the head, neck, and back of the champ to prime his finisher. Likewise, HARASHIMA starts working the leg like usual to set-up the...Somato? Whatever his motive, it looked vicious, the way he stomps, kicks, and cranks away. When Takeshita tries to retaliate with a leg lariat, HARASHIMA slickly catches the leg and drops down into a kneebar. But after an overhead suplex counter, Takeshita dumps him right back onto his neck with a snap dragon suplex. The match picks up offensively from here on out, as the two start trading offense, working in some cool counter sequences here and there. There were some brutal spots from HARASHIMA, including a top rope reverse frankensteiner and a Canadian backbreaker-style reverse piledriver, but he ends up eating Takeshita's boots in a great counter spot to the swandive Somato.
After winning another round of reversals, a frustrated HARASHIMA stomps away at the "never say die"-attitude of Takeshita. Takeshita's selling of the exhaustion and desperation at this point in the match is so good. He collapses during the heated slap-a-thon only to be re-invigorated with punches and channeling the spirit of Dusty Rhodes via Antonio Honda with a Bionic Elbow! Awesome finish, with Takeshita catching HARASHIMA in a tilt-a-whirl into a Dudebuster into a German suplex hold! Shit! And as HARASHIMA, the champ, reaches in vain for the ropes, Takeshita traps the arm and finishes him off with the shutdown German. A strong victory for Takeshita in what I could be the promotion's answer to Omega/Okada, with Takeshita re-taking his rightful place as crown prince of DDT. Can't wait to re-watch this later in the year.
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