DDT Beer Garden Fight-Like Pro Wrestling - Tag 1
Tag Team Match
MAO & Yukio Naya defeat Akito & Gota Ihashi (9:15)
MAO & Yukio Naya were a well oiled machine together against Akito & Gota Ihashi. Naya Choke Slammed Akito onto his partner and then put Ihashi in a Cobra Twist. MAO made the letter E with his body and climbed on top of them to add more pressure to the hold, causing Ihashi to give up.
My Thoughts: This match was pretty fun. Gota Ihashi cracks me up, and this match was pretty hilarious. Akito beating on him then pushing him into doing a move on his opponent is hilarious. Nothing too wild, but real fun match.
Texas Tornado Charinco Death Match: Sanshiro Takagi defeated SHINGO with the Dramatic Dream Twister (10:31).
Bicycles were legal when
Sanshiro Takagi went to war with wrestler/cyclist
SHINGO. First SHINGO cycled out in his full costume then Takagi appeared with the revived and upgraded Dramatic Dream! SHINGO asked for his legs to not be targeted because he has a race next week but his pleas were ignored as Takagi attacked them. They soon brought their bikes into the ring and cycled into each other. SHINGO got the upper hand at first but Takagi eventually lifted both him and his bicycle high in the air for an Argentine Backbreaker. Takagi then attached a drill to the Dramatic Dream and used it to smash a plastic box into SHINGO. Takagi then finished him off with the Dramatic Dream Twister. He praised SHINGO and his trainers at
HEAT-UP for a great performance after the match.
My Thoughts: Don't worry it's a different Shingo. This match was pretty slow moving, until the bikes came out. There were a few spots with the bikes, overall pretty underwhelming. Shingo's bike was pretty damn sweet though.
Saki Akai Produce Match: Kazusada Clark, Yukio Ochanomizu & Saki Akamon defeated Regent Hirata, Yuko Kamisori & One Punch Nakamura when Clark pinned Kamisori with a Lariat (11:35).
It was a bunch of family fortunes in Match #3. The relatives of six DDT wrestlers were gathered together for a 6-Man Tag Match. One team was made up of well behaved high school students:
Kazusada Clark,
Yukio Ochanomizu &
Saki Akamon. Their opponents
Regent Hirata,
Yuko Kamisori &
One Punch Nakamura were all delinquents. Hirata bullied Ochanomizu for his money. Ochanomizu offered him his lunch bread instead but Hirata slapped it away. They continued to bully the students until they stripped off Ochanomizu’s jacket to discover his body was covered in tattoos. The tables turned anf Ochanomizu led his team to fight back against the bullies. Clark confessed his love for Kamisori after the match and they kissed in the ring.
My thoughts: Pretty hilarious match, a lot of fun spots, and unique ways to getting to spots. I really enjoyed this.
4.
Danshoku Dieno Produce Match – Kaidan Shin Numabukuro Death Match ~Showa, Heisei, Reiwa Are Also A Classic!~: Toru Owashi, Danshoku Dieno, Super Sasadango Machine & Yuki Ueno defeated Shinigami after they moved his heart (4:43).
The annual ghost story from
Hisaya Imabayashi almost never took place. First a delay was announced because everyone involved in the match was caught in a traffic accident on the way to the venue. Imabayashi arrived in a hurry and explained to everyone they crashed into a dump truck. He wasn’t hurt in the accident but the four wrestlers were all sent to the hospital in an unconscious state. He broke down and cried in the ring until suddenly
Toru Owashi,
Danshoku Dieno,
Super Sasadango Machine and
Yuki Ueno all climbed into the ring and began wrestling their match. However nobody at ringside was reacting to them, leaving the wrestlers feeling confused. All of a sudden, a Shinigami appeared and told the wrestlers they all died in the traffic accident earlier due to Sasadango’s bad driving. Their souls made it to
Shinjuku FACE because it was their duty to still wrestle but the time had come for him to take their souls to the afterlife. The wrestlers begged for their lives and struck a deal with the Shinigami. He would bring them back to life for five minutes so they could wrestle their last match. They were revived, giving
Yukinori Matsui a big shock, and they went straight into the 4 Way. But there was a twist from Shinigami. He would spare the winner of the match and only take the souls of the losers! Ueno ended up winning the match by making Sasadango tap out to a Sleeper Hold. However Ueno offered to sacrifice himself to Shinigami in order to spare the other three. Each of the wrestlers all did the same until Shinigami got annoyed and decided to revive all of them. The wrestlers celebrated until Imabayashi tried to scare them all with the evil point he always does during his ghost stories. But nothing happened. They didn’t even notice him. Imabayashi was confused until the Shinigami tapped on his shoulder and told him it was time for them to leave. That was when Imabayashi realized he was dead all along. The room went dark and then “Wild Thing” played.
My Thoughts: A lot of this went over my head. I wasn't exactly sure what the hell was going on during this segment/match
5.
HARASHIMA Produce Match – DISASTER BOX Vs Ganpro!: Shuichiro Katsumura & Keisuke Ishii defeated HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura when Katsumura submitted Yoshimura with the Ninja Choke (17:28).
The visiting
Ganbare☆Pro team were victorious over
DISASTER BOX. Even they were surprised by the result! While
HARASHIMA and
Keisuke Ishii kicked each other back and forth on the ring apron,
Naomi Yoshimura tangled with
Shuichiro Katsumura in the ring. Katsumura caught his opponent’s Lariat and countered it into the Ninja Choke. He kept the move locked in until the referee stopped the match in his favour. HARASHIMA took the loss well and along with Yoshimura shook hands with his opponents after the match.
My Thoughts: Very good match, started off a bit slow, but eventually picked up the pace, and become very hard hitting. Both teams worked well together, and there were some solid spots throughout the match.
6. Chris Brookes & Hideki Okatani defeated Konosuke Takeshita & Yuya Koroku when Okatani submitted Koroku with a Crab Hold (22:18).
Summertime means it’s time for
DDT to go back to the beer garden. Normally the headline match goes to one of the wrestler self-produced matches but this year the Day 1 spotlight was given to
Hideki Okatani and
Yuya Koroku. The tag match also involved
Konosuke Takeshita and
Chris Brookes but the final moments came down to the youngsters. Okatani got the better of Koroku in a duel of Elbow Strikes and almost won with a Running Elbow Smash. He had to make Koroku give up to a Crab Hold to get the win in the end. Okatani got to give the show closing speech. He wants to win his matches on all the Beer Garden shows this year.
My Thoughts: Very hard hitting match, both teams were showing their talent. This was as good as the prior match if not better.