DDT wrapped up their 2022 with a New Year’s Eve event today featuring a one day 6-man tag tournament with many independent names as well as DDT participants and also an independent year-end awards ceremony by Japanese sports network Samurai! TV.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast unless it was on Samurai! TV.
The announced paid attendance was 615, a full house/near sellout.
During the Japan Independent Awards Ceremony, DDT earned 2 prizes-Kazusada Higuchi was named MVP while the Best Unit award went to those deplorable Pheromons for a second straight year.
All 6-Man Tag Team Tournament Matches until the Semifinals had a 10 minute time limit.
Match 1: MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto beat Yukio Naya, Hideyoshi Kamiya & Kikutaro. MAO pinned Kikutaro.
Match 2: Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto & Isami Kodaka vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI went to a 10 minute time limit draw. Which led to…
In a 1 Count Fall Overtime with No Time Limit, Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI beat Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto & Isami Kodaka. Higuchi pinned Brookes.
Match 3: Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi (All-Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Tetsuya Endo, Yasufumi Nakanoue & Brahman Shu. Aoyagi pinned Shu.
Match 4: HARASHIMA, Yuki Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda beat Takeshi Masada, Takuya Nomura (All-Japan Pro Wrestling) & Masato Tanaka (ZERO1). Takeda pinned Masada after a reverse U Crash.
Match 5: Ryuji Ito, Jaki Numazawa, Abdullah Kobayashi & Kankuro Hoshino (Big Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Danshoku Dieno, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata & Shunma Katsumata. Ito pinned Hirata after Bilibili Dragon Splash.
Match 6: Tournament Semifinals (15 minute time limit): MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto beat Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI. Aoki pinned ? (DDT’s website didn’t say exactly who won and lost but looked like Aoki beating either Sekifuda or MUSASHI. Definitely not Higuchi taking the loss).
Match 7: Tournament Semifinals (15 minute time limit): Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi beat HARASHIMA, Yuki Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda. Ueno pinned HARASHIMA with a rolling guillotine Ace Crusher.
Match 8: Konosuke Takeshita, Rickey Shane Page, Drew Parker & Cara Noir beat Yuji Okayabashi, Kazumi Kikuta, Takuho Kato & Kazumasa Yoshida. Takeshita pinned Yoshida after Zahi.
Main Event: Tournament Finals (No Time LImit): Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi beat MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto to win the tournament. Hashimoto pinned MAO after a rising DDT. Afterwards, Ueno appeared to ask Hashimoto & Aoyagi to come back for potentially a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge.
The promotion’s first event of 2023 is “Hatsuyume 2023” Tuesday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. Vocal cheering will be allowed and it’s trending towards being a legit sellout (only a few seats left in all but one section). After this event, DDT also announced that SKE48 member Marika Tani will be a guest on commentary Tuesday.
