DDT X TJPW X NOAH
The biggest CyberFight promotions all had major shows in November 2020. All three shows were headlined by a championship match between two wrestlers who used to be tag partners.
It’s a fascinating triptych: three different stories about love and ambition, some featuring betrayal, and some ending with reconciliation.
I found it striking that all three companies trusted a tag team relationship to carry one of their biggest shows of the year. At the end of the day, tag teams are the only thing I care about in wrestling. They’re as compelling as they are heartbreaking. I think these three examples all speak to their power as a storytelling device as well as their drawing power.
I’ve already talked about each of these stories individually, so this is a post about experiencing all of them at once.
On August 29, while watching the finals to the TJPW Tokyo Princess Cup tournament, one of my friends pointed out (in an absolutely doomed comparison) that the Magical Sugar Rabbits have big Axiz energy, and we all agreed that Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki should start doing The Lean. We were rooting for Mizuki to win, even though we were also a little worried about what that would mean for her tag team with Yuka. Someone commented: “Axiz already fought each other and were somehow okay.”
The next day, the very next day, on August 30,
Katsuhiko Nakajima
turned on
Go Shiozaki, and Axiz broke up. Not long after that, Katsu won the N-1 tournament, securing himself a match against Go for the GHC championship at NOAH’s 20th anniversary show on November 22.
As you might guess, this did not lend us confidence that Yuka and Mizuki would somehow make it through the months leading up to their big title match against each other at Wrestle Princess on November 7. Their photobook was set to be released right after that match. I thought, surely they won’t break up right after releasing a photobook, but then I remembered that Axiz had done exactly that.
A fun coincidence is that right as Axiz was in the middle of breaking up, DDT’s Damnation produce show was happening at the same time. I watched the DDT show utterly unaware of the drama happening over at NOAH. Damnation produce shows are always surprisingly wholesome, and this one was no different: it was full of love and respect, and ended with singing and dancing.
We didn’t know yet that a little over a month after this show, Daisuke Sasaki would turn on Tetsuya Endo and attempt to cast him out of the faction, only for Endo to cast him out instead. Leading up to Ultimate Party on November 3, the fate of the next Damnation produce show was in question.
Of course, at the end of the day, everything worked out okay, at least for Endo and Sasaki. Defying my expectations, they reconciled at the end of their match, and Damnation reunited. A few days later, Mizuki and Yuka had their match, and despite all of our fears, they managed to avoid Axiz’s fate and stayed together as a team, stronger than ever.
Go and Katsu weren’t so fortunate. I don’t know if reconciliation will ever be in the cards for them. I hope so. But I know better than to have too much faith.
In a blog post about the Axiz photobooks, Hisame describes the Japanese concept of “mono no aware,” which means that there is a sadness in transience, and that nothing beautiful in nature can last. The third Axiz photobook seems to deliberately invoke this, featuring photos taken at dusk and things associated with the end of summer, like fireworks.
My friends and I joke that 2020 was a very rough year for tag teams, but truthfully it started this summer. There’s a nine day stretch at the end of July and the beginning of August that’s especially bittersweet for a number of tag teams in multiple promotions.
August 29, Mizuki wins the Tokyo Princess Cup and starts to prepare to face Yuka, and as dusk gives way to night over the course of NJPW’s show at Jingu stadium, Tana and Kota (with his luggage packed half full of fireworks) split up after losing their tag title match, and fireworks explode overhead after a triumphant Naito defeats his former tag partner Evil in the main event.
August 30, the members of Damnation prepare to face off against each other in a friendly fight, as Katsu betrays Go in NOAH.
September 5, Kenny and Hangman lose the tag belts in AEW, and Kenny leaves Hangman in the center of the ring and doesn’t look back.
September 7, Endo nominates Sasaki to be his opponent at Ultimate Party, sowing seeds for Sasaki’s attempted betrayal a month later.
Just as summer ends, so does Axiz, and so do several other tag teams. There is a sadness in transience, and tag teams are one of the most transient things in wrestling. Like in nature, nothing beautiful in wrestling can last. Mono no aware indeed.
