DDT wraps up the “Sweet Dreams!” 2023 Tour today with their monthly major event, and it’s a major one indeed. There is an epic hoss fight alert for the main event-a few months ago Kazusada Higuchi & Yuji Hino completely re-wrote the epic chop-fest in a 30 minute time limit draw as part of the D KING GP 2022. Today, the rematch for the KO-D Openweight Championship. DDT is known for its wacky comedy wrestling but it has some serious and incredible matches, and with a 1 Hour time limit there’s certainly early MOTY potential here with a lot of big beefy goodness. There are also 2 more title matches (one of which could frighteningly see those deplorable Pheromones win the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship), the D GENERATIONS CUP Tournament continuing and Where The **** Is Daisuke Sasaki? Will he decide to suddenly re-appear today? Because of that last item, Card Subject To Change.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. There will be a pre-show with two matches including, since it’s time for the WWE Royal Rumble, a royal rumble-style comedy match of their own. Both pre-show matches will be part of the stream, which will start 45 minutes before the scheduled event time. Including the pre-show the event’s total running time should be just over 3 hours so if, like me, you have a split-screen/multi-screen setup to watch both events that will be going the entire time. You will also be able to watch the pre-show and the first 2 main show matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Comedy “Royal Rumble”. At least 25 entrants listed so far
Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs. MJ Pawl & KANON, Antonio Honda & Akito and Yuya Koroku & Yuki Ishida in a 4-way
Main Show:
D GENERATIONS CUP: Hideki Okatani vs. Kazuma Sumi
D GENERATIONS CUP: Keigo Nakamura vs. Takeshi Masada
Shinya Aoki, Yuki Ueno & Toui Kojima vs. Tanomusaku Toba, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hikaru Machida
Naruki Doi, Jun Akiyama & Takao Soma vs. HARASHIMA, Chris Brookes & Yukio Naya
KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo, Kotaro Suzuki & Yusuke Okada vs. Danshoku Dieno, Yuki Iino & Koju Takeda for the titles
KO-D Tag Team Champions MAO & Shunma Katsumata vs. Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi for the titles
KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi vs. Yuji Hino for the title
If Daisuke Sasaki shows up, things may change
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 8:45 PM ET/5:45 PM PT. The pre-show matches are scheduled to begin at 8:50 PM ET/5:50 PM PT.
8:30 PM ET UPDATE: The live stream has launched early and is now running. The matches should begin in 20 minutes.
8:49 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Ken Kato, Haruo Murata & Kagehiro Osano.
Pre-show Match 1: Battle Royal. Eliminations by pinfall, submission and over the top rope.
Result: Fuminori Abe won. This was a comedy battle royal with most wrestlers appearing as parody/spoofs of other popular wrestlers from Japan and WWE, except for Abe & Sanshiro Takagi.
Pre-show Match 2: Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs. MJ Pawl & KANON, Antonio Honda & Akito and Yuya Koroku & Yuki Ishida in a 4-way. 10 minute time limit
Result: MJ Pawl & KANON beat Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata, Antonio Honda & Akito and Yuya Koroku & Yuki Ishida in a 4-way when KANON beat Honda.
The main show will begin at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT (about 8 minutes after the pre-show matches ended).
The paid attendance will be announced after the event but it’s still reduced capacity and vocal cheering is allowed. There still were tickets available earlier today so I’m guessing it’ll wind up around 550.
Updates will resume when the main show matches begin.
Apparently it’s MAO’s birthday as Shunma Katsumata sang Happy Birthday to him during GM Imabayashi’s opening announcements.
When the main broadcast begins at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT Takumi Yamagata replaces Haruo Murata on commentary. Your other hosts are (still) Ken Kato & Kagehiro Osano.
Main Show:
The matches begin at 9:36 PM ET/6:36 PM PT.
Match 1: D GENERATIONS CUP: Hideki Okatani vs. Kazuma Sumi. 15 minute time limit
Result: Hideki Okatani beat Kazuma Sumi
Match 2: D GENERATIONS CUP: Keigo Nakamura vs. Takeshi Masada. 15 minute time limit
Result: Keigo Nakamura beat Takeshi Masada
The YouTube broadcast ends here. Quick break for a few moments. During the break, Samuray Del Sol (the former Kalisto in WWE) vs. Yuki Ueno is announced for 3/21.
Your new host is Haruo Murata with Kagehiro Osano.
Match 3: Shinya Aoki, Yuki Ueno & Toui Kojima vs. Tanomusaku Toba, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hikaru Machida. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shinya Aoki, Yuki Ueno & Toui Kojima beat Tanomusaku Toba, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hikaru Machida. Aoki pinned Machida.
Match 4: Naruki Doi, Jun Akiyama & Takao Soma vs. HARASHIMA, Chris Brookes & Yukio Naya. 30 minute time limit
Result: HARASHIMA, Chris Brookes & Yukio Naya beat Naruki Doi, Jun Akiyama & Takao Soma. HARASHIMA pinned Soma after Blue Sword.
Match 5: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo, Kotaro Suzuki & Yusuke Okada vs. Danshoku Dieno, Yuki Iino & Koju Takeda for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo, Kotaro Suzuki & Yusuke Okada beat Danshoku Dieno, Yuki Iino & Koju Takeda to retain the titles. Endo pinned Dieno after Burning Star Press. V1 for the champs. Next up: Super Sasadango Machine, Yuki Ueno & Shinya Aoki. Machine appeared via taped promo. That match will happen on 2/26 at Korakuen.
Match 6: KO-D Tag Team Champions MAO & Shunma Katsumata vs. Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Resule: KO-D Tag Team Champions MAO & Shunma Katsumata beat Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi to retain the titles. Katsumata pinned Oishi. V1 for the champs. Next up: Sanshiro Takagi & ? (Not sure if it was Fuminori Abe or someone else). Probably on 2/26 but they teased something involving Burlesqe Tokyo. Yeah, misspelled that way.
Main Event: KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi vs. Yuji Hino for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Yuji Hino beat KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi to win the title. Hino becomes the 80th KO-D Openweight Champion. Beyond epic hoss fight and then some, barely 5 minutes in and they both looked like huge slabs of rare Wagyu Beef. Drop the $7.50 or whatever a month for WRESTLE UNIVERSE because you NEED to see this match. And infinite credit to Higuchi for one of the best reigns ever and really taking his role as the new generation flagbearer for DDT seriously and with great pride. Next up: Hino nominated Yukio Naya…but hold on, because out came the eternal pride of DDT since Day 1, HARASHIMA. GM Imabayashi decided there will be a determination match between Naya & HARASHIMA for the next title shot on 2/26. So that means Hino’s first defense will probably come at the 5 Hour anniversary event on 3/21 at Korakuen.
The next event is 2/5 at Osaka Azalea Taisho in Osaka. There will be no live broadcast.
UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 777, a legit sellout.
The KO-D Tag Team Championship match of MAO & Shunma Katsumata vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Fuminori Abe will happen on 2/24 at Burlesque Tokyo club in Tokyo. Tickets just went on sale for the event and will be limited to 98.
