The Eruption tandem of Kazusada Higuchi and Yukio Sakaguchi successfully defended their KO-D Tag Team Championships against the DDT Sauna Club pairing of MAO and Konosuke Takeshita, at DDT’s Nagoya outing on February 23rd.
MAO and Takeshita were expected to pose a significant challenge to the champions, now over 100 days into their reign, and they did just that, with a blistering back and forth affair that seemingly could have gone either way.
However Kazusada Higuchi, perhaps bolstered by his upcoming KO-D Openweight Championship match against Jun Akiyama, would prove to be the difference maker, seeing off former champion Takeshita with the Brain Claw Slam.
The win continues a strong run of form for Higuchi ahead of his Korakuen Hall clash with Akiyama at DDT’s 24th Anniversary show on March 28th.
Post match, Eruption (now complete with third member Saki Akai) were presented with their next set of challengers, HARASHIMA and Big Japan Pro Wrestling star Yuji Okabayashi.
Earlier in the night, Akai had been less successful then her stablemates, dropping a tag team encounter with Antonio Honda to Chris Brookes and burgeoning AEW star Maki Itoh.
Jun Akiyama was also on the card, competing as part of an eight man tag team match against CIMA and his Stronghearts contingent.
The preamble to this match was particularly notable as Akiyama, who refuses to wear the KO-D Openweight belt around his waist until he avenges his D-Oh Grand Prix loss to Higuchi, was taunted with a belt from his previous company, All Japan Pro Wrestling, by CIMA – the promotion’s new Junior Heavyweight Champion.
Full Results:
KO-D Tag Team Championships: Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi and Yukio Sakaguchi) (c) defeated DDT Sauna Club (Konosuke Takeshita and MAO)
Stronghearts (CIMA, T-Hawk, El Lindaman and Shigehiro Irie) defeated Jun Akiyama, Makoto Oishi, Hideki Okaya and Yusuke Okada
Damnation (Daisuke Sasaki and Tetsuya Endo) defeated Yuki Ueno and Shunma Katsumata
Toru Owashi and Yukio Naya defeated Damnation (Soma Takao and Mad Paulie)
KO-D 6 Man Tag Team Championships: Akito, Kazuki Hirata and Shota (c) defeated Sanshiro Takagi, HARASHIMA and Danshoku Dino
Yuji Hino defeated Yuki Iino
Chris Brookes and Maki Itoh defeated Saki Akai and Antonio Honda
Hiroshi Yamato and Tsunehiro Shimatani defeated Keigo Nakamura and Towei Kojima