Dramatic Dream Team 12/4/2020 - DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 In Narimasu!

 Dramatic Dream Team 12/4/2020 - DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 In Narimasu!

 Yuki Ueno vs Makoto Oishi

Yuki Ueno

They did some technical wrestling to start and they bit each other to get out of holds. Oishi legit worked a headlock for about 10 minutes straight with Ueno trying multiple ways to get out of it. Ueno hit a nice corkscrew plancha. Osihi then started working on the knee some. He tried to dropkick Ueno's knee in the corner, but he ended up in the ropes and Ueno dropped knees on him. Ueno remembered his knee was worked on and smartly sold it. They had a nearfall and then Ueno hit a nice shining wizard on a standing Oishi. Not long after, Ueno went for a DDT like move, but Oishi tried a kneebar and then Ueno turned it into an armbar for the win. Ueno could have maybe cut some of the flying moves out to tell this story better, but Oishi really tried to keep him grounded here and did a good job. I liked that Oishi even played the knee work into the finish.

Shunma Katsumata vs Kazusada Higuchi

Shunma Katsumata

Kazusada Higuchi

Shunma immediately exited the ring to start the match, daring Higuchi to come out. When he did, he ran back in, daring him to come in and jumping him at the ropes. Shunma ran the apron and dropkicked Higuchi. Then he tried to crossbody him, but he got caught and slammed down. Shunma was then rolled in and he rolled out to the other side. Shunma was then put in and did it again. Higuchi caught him again and threw him in but Shunma got caught trying to go to the other side. Then Higuchi put him in again but held on this time. Shunma tried a dropkick but Higuchi no sold it. Shunma took off the turnbuckle and ended up getting slammed on it. Shunma later tried a top rope move but got caught and chokeslammed down hard. Shunma later did a plancha to the outside and I think Higuchi was supposed to catch him but ended up folding and falling down. Shunma then went under the ring and Higuchi chased him. When they came back up, somehow Higuchi was all tied up. Why the ref would allow this would be a great question but this is DDT. Higuchi got himself out and then proceeded to charge full speed into the exposed turnbuckle and then got pinned.

I actually thought this was a pretty smart match and was actually pretty good except for Higuchi being taped up. They went a little too long with it but they worked the big man vs small match story well.

Jun Akiyama vs Soma Takao

Soma Takao

Jun Akiyama

Imagine being Jun Akiayama. You debut during one of the hottest periods of wrestling ever working with legends like Baba, Jumbo, Misawa and now you are hanging around with Danshoku Dino. They did a little sequence early with Jun missing an elbow and Soma catching him with a dropkick. Jun hit a nasty piledriver early and then superplexed him later. Jun almost nailed the ref and then Soma pushed him into the ref and the ref went down. Soma brought in some kind of metal bowl with 2 layers. Jun blocked the first one but then got hit with the second. Jun dared him to hit him again, and so he did but then Jun hit him a bunch of times in return. Jun had enough and knee'd him twice hard before hitting an exploder and a wrist clutch exploder for the win. Jun even put his knee on Soma's face to pin him.

This was actually pretty good too with the story being Soma trying to show up the legend and then getting the crap kicked out of him for it.

Yukio Sakaguchi vs HARASHIMA

I love Yuki Sakaguchi. One bad mofo. They did a bunch of MMA where they were struggling for position early. It went on for a long time and I'm not quite sure if the DDT audience was the right one for this. There wasn't much to describe but after about 8 minutes, Yukio choked out Harashima for the win.

Konosuke Takeshita vs MAO

MAO

Konosuke Takeshita

They did a cool flippy faceoff early and Mao did a nice kip-up into a throw. They did a lot of chain wrestling early. Mao got thrown into the corner and tried to go over Takeshita, who was coming in, but Mao got uppercutted to the body and went down hard. Takeshita did a cool flipping lariat on Mao. Mao did a jumping legdrop onto a standing Takeshita and hit a couple of good right hands. Mao tried a split legged moonsault but Takeshita caught him with feet. They slowed it down by exchanging double reverse armlocks then did a suplex on the apron.

Takeshita brought him back in then did a nasty brainbuster on Mao. Takeshita then locked his arms around him like a german and Mao got out of it by playing dead basically and surprising him. Takeshita charged at him with a knee and he did a capoeira flip into a superkick. They had another fast paced exchange and then started trading strikes. They went to the top and Takeshita fireman's carried him then dropped him on the ropes. Soon after, Mao reversed him and hit an unsual looking crucifix driver.

Mao backflipped out of a backdrop and took a nasty lariat. Mao tried a springboard moonsault and slipped, taking an awful landing. Takeshita gave him a few hard knees and tried to pin him, but something went wrong. Mao had his shoulder up but I guess it wasn't in time and they ended the match? Confusing finish to a weird match. They were on the right track early then just started doing cool stuff instead of smart stuff and started mixing between slow and fast paces.

Overall thoughts: I skipped the Dino match but this was a good show. Not much comedy and they did some good storytelling here.