Daisuke Sasaki vs. KANON

[5.0] "KANON is proving to be an exceptional face--and I suppose it is easy to root for him given the sort of blunder headed booking of his sudden betrayal by the hands of Damnation T.A. I think a lot of wrestling storytelling wrongs can be glossed over if the match surrounding it is good, and this is a well paced, well worked, and exciting match of KANON being presented as this brutal vengeful force consistently having to overcome the numbers game. It works really well right up until DDT does the one thing that I think could've made KANON look weak in defeat (and to be clear, I do think it made sense for him to lose this match): submit in the middle of the ring. Pass out, get pinned, get DQ'd, I think almost anything else would've worked better here. Well, whatever. KANON v. Okatani is where KANON should really win, eventually, anyways. I hope. That's the real story here and I feel like DDT has kind of forgotten that to an extent."

[6.0] "Thought this worked pretty well to get the crowd behind Sasaki, I really haven't seen much of KANON's career to this point unfortunately, but I've been impressed with what I've seen and I'm looking forward to seeing him going forward. 3.25 stars"

[7.0] "I was not expecting to get so into KANON's face work, they all did so well on that part. Sasaki being brutal and DAMNATION TA being scummy is the way it should be, plus new Okatani style is quite nice. Hope KANON turns into good top face in DDT. ***1/2"

[6.0] "Maybe a little underwhelming, but it did its job in setting out how outmatched Kanon is currently in his feud with Damnation TA. Kanon tried his best and got some good hope spots, but in the end , the numbers advantage of Sasaki won out. Okatani was the highlight here for me, with some truly vicious kendo stick shots that looked borderline dangerous. It's clear that Kanon vs Okatani is going to be the focus here, so this match was really just to set that up. Hopefully Kanon finds some new friends soon!"

[7.0] "This was a match about the future, about history. KANON had to suffer for all what he did, had to be beaten hard here to start his path to redemption. He fight against his entire past family here and had several strong comebacks before being crushed by Sasaki in very psychological way. All of his interactions with Okatani were very intense, tough and hot, but I think Hideki strike KANON too hard, sometimes his strikes didn't look safe at all and some of his actions seems like a shoot."

[4.0] "More of an angle than a match to continue the feud between KANON and Daisuke Sasaki. If you're invested in that feud or either of these men, maybe you'll get something out of it but I just found myself indifferent."

[7.0] "This match was good for me. Maybe for someone this type of booking may seem heavy but I found it right with the story. Daisuke Sasaki is always great in the ring and Kanon started well (albeit with a loss) this babyface run. I hope the two meet again, because they could do even better"

[2.0] "2.5 - All of this garbage just to create sympathy for KANON. But the thing is, the sympathy was already there. The fans were cheering for him as soon as he stepped out. I don't hate intereferences by design, but when they're lazy and repetitive I hate them. Sasaki is by far the most overrated wrestler in DDT, but Okatani and Illusion look great as scummy heels."