WRESTLE PETER PAN, DDT’s biggest annual event, is now in the books. It was the highlight event so far of DDT’s 25th Anniversary celebration but there is still more to come.
Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English.
The announced paid attendance was 1250, a full house/near sellout. Because vocal cheering/support was allowed, the venue was only at 50% capacity (the whole top half of the seating was not used). Your Japanese hosts are Haruo Murata & Kagehiro Osano with special guests Marika Tani of SKE48 (a teammate of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling star Yuki Arai), Megu Taniguchi of AKB48, and the GOD of Japanese Pro Wrestling, the incomparable Kenta Kobashi. Your English hosts are Christelle Ciari, Hiroshi Arai & Bryan Burton-Lewis. (Chris Brookes was in action today and Baliyan Akki is in the US).
The event begins with opening greeting & announcements at the 10 minute mark before Kobashi delivers the opening shout at the 15 minute mark. I STILL TO THIS DAY get chills & goosebumps every time GRAND SWORD hits for his entrance (although it’s hard to see him so limited mobility-wise from age, his long career and his successful triumphs over cancer). The entire replay runs just under 5 hours.
Match 1: Yusuke Okada, Yuya Koroku & Illusion beat Toui Kojima, Yuki IShida & Takeshi Masada. Koroku beat Ishida with a stranglehold.
Match 2: Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno & Koju Takeda (666, but now the newest member of those despicable Pheromons) beat Toru Owashi, Kazuki Hirata & Antonio Honda and Yuji Hino, Yukio Naya & Super Sasadango Machine in a 3-way by ref stoppage (TKO) when Takeda beat Hirata.
Match 3: HARASHIMA, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani beat Naomi Yoshimura, Kota Umeda & Keisuke Okuda. HARASHIMA pinned Yoshimura after Blue Sword.
Match 4: Shinichiro Kawamatsu Debut Match: Osamu Nishimura, Makoto Oishi & Akito beat Shinichiro Kawamatsu, Sanshiro Takagi & Takao Soma. Nishimura pinned Kawamatsu.
Match 5: Jun Akiyama & Saki Akai beat Chris Brookes & Asuka (Veny). Akai beat Asuka with an extreme arm triangle.
Match 6: In a Hardcore Match, DDT Extreme Champion Joey Janela beat Shunma Katsumata to retain the title. V1 for Janela.
Match 7: Yuki Ueno beat DDT Universal Champion Masa Takanashi to win the title. Ueno becomes the 8th DDT Universal Champion.
Match 8: DDT 25th Anniversary Match: Konosuke Takeshita, MAO & Yasu Urano beat Dick Togo (New Japan Pro Wrestling), Daisuke Sasaki & KANON. Takeshita pinned KANON after a jumping knee.
Main Event: KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi beat Tetsuya Endo to retain the title. V1 for Higuchi. Next up: Takeshita. That will happen on 9/25 at Korakuen Hall. Higuchi wants the best and he got the best, he certainly is proving himself to be a fighting champion and taking pride in his new position as the flag-bearer of DDT in more ways than one. This should be another excellent match.
LiLiCo, who retired earlier this year, made a special appearance today and is returning as a special ambassador for the final event of the year at Tokyo Dome City Hall. And she has come up with a true DDT idea for those attending-if you attend and feel the event was boring, you will get a full refund of your ticket price. That event will be on 12/29.
One more tournament this year is coming up-D KING GRAND PRIX 2022, a singles tournament. Kenta Kobashi has been named chairman of the tournament executive committee. It will run during November and end on December 4. Entrants will be revealed on September 25-the plan is 24 total in 2 blocks of 12 and entrants must be younger than 40 (so no Jun Akiyama, HARASHIMA, Sanshiro Takagi and a few others).
The next event is Tuesday at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo for the monthly DDT FREE event, where all tickets are free for those lucky enough to be chosen in the lottery to get them. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
One last thing from just finishing watching the replay: Stay tuned after the main event and Higuchi’s exit as the ending is done movie-style with a credit roll of wrestlers & staff and outtakes/unseen pre-show backstage footage. Plus some pre-event footage from outside the venue with fans entering and taking everything in, all set to one of the old DDT theme songs. Very nice touch! After it ends we see Higuchi run into Endo backstage, leading to one final show of respect between them to end the show.
