As the calendar flips over to December, along with the cavalcade of festivities comes time to decide our respective Wrestler of the Year. I\u2019ve shortlisted five names who are in the running for my Wrestler of the Year selection, with each being featured in their own piece. My fifth and final pick is the Ace of DDT and current KO-D Openweight Champion, Konosuke Takeshita.
This is where it becomes important to outline that my list of five isn\u2019t done in a strict order, as Takeshita is certainly higher than being the fifth-best wrestler of 2021 category. As if he\u2019s the sailor of the ship called DDT, Takeshita has impeccably led the much-loved promotion over recent years.<\/p>\r\n
The case for Takeshita being Wrestler of the Year didn\u2019t begin to take shape until late February, but it\u2019s been a spectacular year since then. Takeshita teamed with MAO, as a part of the 37KAMIINA faction, to challenge for the KO-D Tag Team Championships. In a quite spectacular main event at the equally spectacularly named DDT Effort, Friendship and Victory show (Feb 23), Takeshita and MAO faced the Eruption pairing of Kazusada Higuchi and Yukio Sakaguchi.<\/p>\r\n
Great tag team matches populated much of Takeshita\u2019s year, with him pairing well with Shunma Katsumata. However, his best tag team outing was alongside unlikely partner, Yuki Ueno. They teamed at the fantastic CyberFight Festival<\/a> (June 6), to proudly represent DDT against NOAH\u2019s Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura. On paper this match was mouth-watering, and it delivered perfectly!<\/p>\r\n