Dramatic DDT

MUSCLE “HIRAGANA MUSCLE 3 ~FINISH RANPATSU~ OPEN TO THE PUBLIC”, 21/09/2020
Tokyo Shinagawa The Grand Hall
??? Fans – Withheld

1. Konosuke Takeshita & Yukio Naya defeated South River Minamikawa & Mizuki Watase when Takeshita submitted Minamikawa with the Walls Of Takeshita (13:13).
2. HARASHIMA defeated Kazuki Hirata with a Middle Kick (11:38).

The last time we were with Muscle it was established that the brand represents 2.5D Pro Wrestling, which is an area that exists in between multimedia and reality. With this knowledge Super Sasadango Machine came up with the idea of making a 2.9D pro wrestling musical in the hopes it will become a successful multimedia juggernaut. Today was the rehearsal for “Finish Ranpatsu”. The completed production is supposed to take place on 9th November. Yuki The Rock & South River Minamikawa introduced everyone to the show then Minamikawa found out he was going to wrestle.

Minamikawa teamed up with Mizuki Watase to take on Konosuke Takeshita & Yukio Naya. He tried to teach Watase the Systema breathing technique that blocks out pain. It seemed to work against strikes but Takeshita & Naya switched to submission holds and Systema became useless. Minamikawa had Takeshita on the ropes after hitting him with a Shining Wizard. He tried to do the Gotch-Style Piledriver but Takeshita tripped him down and applied the Walls Of Takeshita. Minamikawa gave up but claimed it was because he’s running late for something else, not because of the pain.

After that match, the wrestlers came out and practiced their performance routines. The plot is about The Finisher Boys (Konosuke Takeshita, Yuki Ueno, Akito, Shunma Katsumata & Kazuki Hirata) and The Steel Chair Boys (Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura, Mizuki Watase, Choun-Shiryu & Shota). Some of it was dance, some of it was acting and some of it was wrestling. But tragedy struck when Sasadango was attacked by The Folding Chair Boys and they left him for dead. The show went into intermission with Hirata promising to become the next Super Sasadango Machine in the real world.

After the break, Sasadango came out with a halo above his head. He was here to tell a story about his history with DDT. Kazuki Hirata played the part of Muscle Sakai, Watase was given the role of WATASHIMA and Naya showed up as Big Boss. According to Sasadango, he joined DDT’s video team to learn how to be a movie director. He doesn’t remember much about the roster back then other than the main event babyface WATASHIMA was a jerk.

In the ring was the moment when Sakai became a pro wrestler. Sakai was filming the others practicing when they told him to take a bump. He did one and everybody was impressed. Sakai and WATASHIMA then had a sparring session. Sakai was given a Low Blow but he recovered and pinned WATASHIMA with a School Boy. Thus began Sakai’s pro wrestling career.

Fast forward to several years later. Sakai is busy both wrestling and running projects behind the scenes. WATASHIMA came to visit and offered him to smoke something out of a bong to stay relaxed. A reluctant Sakai agreed but regretted the decision when WATASHIMA challenged him to another sparring session. Suddenly The Folding Chair Boys arrived for an elaborate dance number and then helped WATASHIMA injure Sakai’s knee with a domino chair spot. The injury took its toll over time and Sakai had to retire.

It is now five years later. Sakai was now running his family’s business and he hired all of the shitty wrestlers DDT fired, like DJ Nira. But still Sakai deep down wanted to wrestle again. Nira offered him something mysterious to heal his knee injury. It is bamboo leaves, the kind they use to wrap around sasadango treats. If Sakai wears wrestling gear made out of bamboo leaves then he will be able to wrestle again without feeling pain. The Finish Boys then appeared and gave Sakai the Super Sasadango Machine costume. They then encouraged him to confront WATASHIMA and win the championship from him!

The scene is now the KO-D Openweight Title match between WATASHIMA and Super Sasadango Machine. Their match also featured The Finish Boys and The Folding Chair Boys fighting each other in a battle invisible to everyone else around them. Things then took another turn when Tetsuya Endo showed up and hit the Shooting Star Press on WATASHIMA. The ex-DDT wrestlers got their revenge on Big Boss and Sasadango created the Vertical Drop Lehmann Shock to win the championship!

Suddenly the performance was interrupted by Yuki The Rock. He questioned if this play was based on a true story because Sasadango never won the KO-D Title in real life. Hirata had gone too deep into his role at this point and thought he really was Sasadango and he really did win the title. This problem needed to be solved so Yuki brought out HARASHIMA! He snapped Hirata back to his normal self and explained that he was always average. He never stood out as the best of anything. For a long time he was content with just being that but seeing the other wrestlers get invested into Muscle made him jealous. Also he struggled to handle the cancellation of his 10th Anniversary show due to the pandemic. He jumped at the opportunity to take the lead role of today’s show but got too attached to it. He is satisfied with his performance today and now has the courage to challenge HARASHIMA to a match right there, right now!

HARASHIMA happily accepted the challenge and they had a proper match. Hirata fought his best and had encouragement from the wrestlers around him. But HARASHIMA put him down with a Middle Kick to win.

Still, HARASHIMA was impressed by Hirata’s performance. All of the wrestlers were, even the bad guys. Hirata got to show his real emotions in the ring today and that is a better tale than any true story.