One of the highlights of DDT in 2020 was the feud between the forming Junretsu and ALL OUT. In the time since, Soup lost both his singles matches against Jun and formed a whole new stable around his resulting insecurity. Meanwhile, Uncle Jun brings in one of the hot young prospect from All Japan, Yusuke Okada, to the DDT roster to fill out his stable.
This is a great DDT six-man tag. Not quite the kind of explosive fast-paced action that we might have gotten from something like ALL OUT/DAMNHEARTS but there’s a real great structure to this and things move at a really great pace. Much of the early match is about Shunma eating a bunch of offense from the Junretsu side which is something he’s wonderfully suited to. Shunma is a great face in peril, incredibly sympathetic and easy to root for.
Meanwhile, we have the continuing story of Yusuke Okada trying to prove himself to Jun after losing to him in a singles match. He throws himself into the fray and hit some wonderful elbows. Okada’s such a wonderful addition to the DDT roster and I really like seeing him mix it up with the 37Kamiina guys under Takeshita.
MAO is pretty harmless in this match, there’s enough moving parts that he’s never around long enough to do something that’ll annoy me. He has a problem with looking like he’s overthinking every sequence. Nothing about him ever comes across as natural so he’s well hidden in the frenetic nature of the six-man.
Of course, the highlight is the interaction between Takeshita and Akiyama. Soup is incredibly motivated and has been on absolute tear and Akiyama is still great after all this time. Thrilled to get more of this rivalry and the eventual title match at Wrestle Peter Pan down the line.
