These two had one of my favorite DDT matches of 2017 and once again, these two proved that their in-ring chemistry is a key to success. I've always had a soft spot for HARASHIMA's matwork, which usually doesn't go anywhere but when it's happening, I dig it. His leg trip to KUDO from the ground was especially neat. HARASHIMA is also one of the more frustrating sellers but when he's on, he's on, and here, he was on. He eats a spinning back kick to the face and I loved him immediately bailing to the outside after making it to his feet before the ten count...only for KUDO to take him out with a big dive! KUDO kicks hard and he kicked a lot in this match. His head kick toward the end of the match looked real nasty. In fact, there were quite a few strike exchanges throughout, from elbows to kicks to slaps, but everything was snug. KUDO is able to hit the hanging double knees, HARASHIMA hits the reverse frankensteiner. I really liked pulling a page from Yuko Miyamoto's playbook and spiking KUDO with the Fire Thunder Driver before finishing him off with the Somato. One of my favorite DDT matches of 2018.

These two always had good matches and this is another good entry into their series, despite being a throwaway title defense for HARASHIMA in a random house show. The way the first few minutes play out is beautiful. Hara  gets caught by the heel kick and then getting wiped out by a tope suicida when he goes to gather himself outside the ring. KUDO has a good tope by the way, especially for someone in his forties. Anyway, KUDO tries to finish the match immediately by hitting him more and pinning him. It's a great moment when HARASHIMA finally gets up and starts trading with KUDO. After that, they settle into their normal match. There's way too many fighting spirit!~ strike exchanges, which has always been something they do too much of. However, there was still enough tweaks to their formula to keep me entertained.