This was for HARASHIMA’s KO-D Openweight Title.
It’s a banger, as one of DDT’s all time great pairings meets for the first time with any real consequence.
I was really critical at the time of their 2015 KO-D Openweight Title match and Yukio’s KO-D Openweight Title reign in general. I’m left wondering after this match how much of that holds up, and maybe how much of it is just being a little newer to him in those situations at the time, not being the sort of harder core DDT fan I became around 2016. Because he’s great here.
Or rather, HARASHIMA makes him look so great here.
Yukio is still pretty new, but this match is tailor made to make him look incredible. His strengths are grappling and striking, and HARASHIMA is the perfect opponent for a wrestler like that. Was and still is. HARASHIMA can do more, he can have dumber and wilder matches, but he’s the perfect guy to throw at someone a little newer to pro wrestling and with this sort of a background. His grappling is perfect. He’s not a natural or anything, but the way HARASHIMA conducts himself in the ring extends to his grappling sections. Every motion has meaning. He never does anything that doesn’t either matter or that doesn’t rule. So all the little movements on the mat all have value and all get you to a point where you realize that for the first time in DDT, the inexperienced Sakaguchi has run into someone he can’t just run through on a purely culture shock sort of level.
Yukio moves to striking but he’s also not able to steamroll HARASHIMA, who can kick, slap, knee, and elbow with him. HARASHIMA once again walks the line masterfully, giving Yukio enough to make him look like a certified future main eventer, but making it clear that he is The Man. There’s a few different ways he does it. First is that Yukio manages a Somato kickout, which isn’t reserved for just anyone. The second is that HARASHIMA never really survives any of Sakaguchi’s big finishes. It’s all experience and maneuverability and pure smarts. I’ve always been so drawn to HARASHIMA for the reason I’ve been so drawn to Yoshino or Tanahashi or Bret Hart or whoever else you want to throw into the mold. My favorite archetype in wrestling is the sort of Ace figure who doesn’t just rely on guts and brawn, but who has a brain to go with it too. Smart enough to outthink almost everyone, and tough enough let the athleticism or science do the rest for them. HARASHIMA’s as good of an example of that archetype in action as you’ll get, and this match is yet another stellar example as to why.
HARASHIMA blocks and/or counters all the big Yukio stuff, so his toughness gets him nowhere. HARASHIMA goes big and breaks out the old AJ Styles style Cliffhanger DDT, before a second and more impactful Somato keeps HARASHIMA’s hands on the KO-D for the time being.
If HARASHIMA had a second half of the year full of matches like this instead of wasting the first half of one of his longer reigns with bullshit, he’d be a Wrestler of the Year contender, because this is yet another performance where he looks like one of the best wrestlers alive.
A fantastic starting point, which they’ve only improved on in the years since.
HANDWERK 