I intended to review this entire show, but it was already a week ago, and I’ve been to see DDT since then, so I can’t see myself getting a chance to do so before it becomes completely obsolete. However, I wanted to finish off my run through of the D-Oh, so here are my thoughts on Masato Tanaka vs Tetsuya Endo. It will be the last match I talk about from 2018, and while it’s a few days late, I would like to thank everyone that read the site in the last year. It was significantly more people than have ever read it before, and that means a lot to me.
Masato Tanaka defeated Tetsuya Endo to win the D-Oh Grand Prix
The story of this match, and with the benefit of hindsight the tournament, was that Masato Tanaka is a motherfucking badass. The man is 46-years-old and should probably have no brain cells left at this point, yet he went out there and didn’t only match Endo (one of DDT’s best), but beat the shit out of him at times.
That did lead to a slightly unusual situation where Endo was almost an underdog heel. Early on, he dragged out a table only to end up being splashed through it while it was the DAMNATION man who was having to fight from underneath for long parts of the match. At this point in his life, Tanaka is more oak than flesh, and Endo was struggling to hurt him. He threw idea after idea in his direction, only to bounce off the puroresu veteran.
Things would even out towards the end, Tanaka getting his knees up on a Shooting Star only for Endo to do the same on a Frog Splash. Still, however, old Masato refused to die. He no-sold a Destroyer to pop up and hit a Sliding D, kicked out of the Shooting Star that connected and finally came crashing in with a brace of Sliding Ds (one to the front, one to the back) for the three. I told you, you can’t kill the fucker. They might as well hand him the title now.
Verdict: Four Stars
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