DDT wrapped up the KING OF DDT 2023 Tournament today with the Semifinals and Finals.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. You can also watch the first 4 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 677.
Pre-show:
Match 1: Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno & Yumehito Imanari beat Akito, Yusuke Okada & Rukiya by ref stoppage (TKO). Iino beat Rukiya.
Match 2: Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai, Takao Soma, Yuni & Yuki Ishida beat Toru Owashi, Makoto Oishi, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi. Akai pinned Hirata after Quetzalcoatl.
Main show:
The promised announcement of a former WWE wrestler/champion appearing at WRESTLE PETER PAN was made to reveal the wrestler’s identity…Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder). He will face DDT Universal Champion Tetsuya Endo for the title on 7/23 with Steph De Lander in Cardon’a corner (not Chelsea Green, Cardona’s real-life wife. She’s back in WWE).
Match 1: KING OF DDT Semifinals: Kazusada Higuchi beat Yuki Ueno.
Match 2: KING OF DDT Semifinals: Chris Brookes beat Jun Akiyama.
Match 3: Tetsuya Endo & Kotaro Suzuki beat Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul. Endo pinned Paul after Burning Star Press. This was to have been a 6-man tag match but was changed to a tag match due to a KANON injury.
Match 4: Yuji Hino, Sanshiro Takagi, HARASHIMA & Naruki Doi beat MAO, Touki Kojima, Yuya Koroku & Takeshi Masada. Hino beat Koroku with King Kong sleeper.
Match 5: In a Piercing Deathmatch where win was by pinfall, submission or piercing your opponent’s ear 3 times, DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata beat Hideki Okatani to retain the title. V1 for Katsumata. Next up: TBA, but Katsumata hinted at wanting Atsushi Onita.
Main Event: KING OF DDT Finals: Chris Brookes beat Kazusada Higuchi by submission to win the tournament. As a result, Brookes will next face KO-D Openweight Champion Yuji Hino for the title at a date TBA.
Daisuke Sasaki summoned media backstage and tried to wait for El Desperado, who was part of the New Japan event later in the day at the venue. However, Korakuen Hall staff forced him to leave. Sasaki will face Desperado at WRESTLE PETER PAN.
The next event is Saturday at JMS Alter Plaza Multipurpose Studio in Hiroshima. There will be no live broadcast.
