Into The Fight is an event held each year since 2005 (except in 2006) at Korakuen Hall (except the 2015 edition which was held at Shinjuku Face). The 2021 edition was the sixteenth event under that name.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show only had an attendance of 584 people whereas the previous editions held at Korakuen Hall generally attracted around 1,500 people.[1]
Next, the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship was being defended in a five-way match. The 1,498th champion heading into the match was a copy of The Young Bucks' autobiography "Killing the Business" and the challengers were Kazuki Hirata, Danshoku Dino, Antonio Honda and Saki Akai. The match had a 10-minute time limit and the first to pin the book would win and be declared the new champion. The challengers all fought each other trying to cover the book. Hirata eventually went backstage looking for something that would help him defeat the champion. Rummaging through the belongings of Gota Ihashi, he found a copy of "Lip Hip Shake", the first photobook of Akai from 2006. Hirata used the photobook as a weapon and tried to show its content to the audience while Akai frantically tried to hide it from view. In the end, every wrestler was knocked down and the photobook fell on top of The Young Bucks' autobiography. Referee Yukinori Matsui counted it as a pin and declared the photobook winner of both the match and the title.
Kazuki Hirata then congratulated the new champion before executing the "Viagra Driver" (a pumphandle version of the "Michinoku Driver II") to try and pin it. The book kicked out at two and retaliated by hitting Hirata in the head and knocking him down with a huracánrana. Gota Ihashi then ran down to the ring, grabbed the photobook and fled.
In the third match, Harashima, Toru Owashi and Yukio Naya faced Damnation (Daisuke Sasaki, Mad Paulie and Nobuhiro Shimatani). The match concluded when Shimatani tried to hit Harashima with "Somato", Harashima's own finisher. Harashima countered the attempt and executed two "Somato" of his own to pin Shimatani. Though Sasaki and Paulie were in position to break up the pin, they chose not to do so, visibly taken aback by Shimatani's plan.
Next, Damnation (Tetsuya Endo, Soma Takao and Yuji Hino) faced All Out (Konosuke Takeshita, Akito and Yuki Iino). Iino, eager to fight Hino, went for a "Diving Hip Drop" but he was stopped by Hino. Endo tried to hit Iino with a powerbomb, but he collapsed under Iino's weight. Finally, Takao performed the "Official Endless Waltz" (a rolling arm wrench inside cradle) on Iino for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Akito called the entire All Out stable into the ring to give a speech. He announced he had thought long about the future of All Out now that Iino was back from his injury. He pointed out that each member of the stable had bigger personal objectives: Iino was going after Yuji Hino, Takeshita and Shunma Katsumata had their new DDT Sauna Club stable, Katsumata also had the DDT Extreme Division title to defend, and Akito had the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team title to defend. For all these reasons, Akito proposed that All Out disbanded. Everyone agreed that they had all grown out of the stable, and General Manager Hisaya Imabayashi agreed to schedule a special farewell show on March 12.
In a backstage interview, Akiyama complimented Higuchi on his strength and his determination while also expressing frustration for the loss.
Main event
The main event was a deathmatch with special rules dubbed the "Kids Room Deathmatch 37 (Sauna) Count Edition" (キーズルームデスマッチ・37（サウナ）カウントエディション, kīzu rūmu desumatchi sauna kaunto edishon) in which Shunma Katsumata defended the DDT Extreme Division Championship against Mao. Toys such as Lego bricks, a miniature train and kid size furniture were displayed in the ring. The match had no disqualification or rope breaks, every object inside the ring was legal and any weapon introduced by the wrestlers was legal if referee Matsui deemed it "kid safe". The goal of the match was to pin the opponent for a cumulative 37-count (in Japanese, "37" can be read in a way that sounds like "sauna", in reference to the DDT Sauna Club stable of which Katsumata and Mao were both members). Katsumata convinced referee Matsui that he used to play with cinder blocks as a child in order to drop one on Mao. Both traded 2-count pinfalls in an intense bout that saw its conclusion when Katsumata donned a barbed wire laced apron and climbed the top turnbuckle for a diving splash. Mao rolled out of the way but Katsumata caught him in a cradle to get the 37th count and retain his title.
After the match, Chris Brookes cordially challenged Katsumata for the title. Katsumata accepted and Brookes attacked him.
