The post-Saki Akai era began in DDT today with an event featuring a mini-tournament to crown new KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions, the title she gave up upon her retirement Sunday. But Akai thankfully isn’t gone, she is now in a behind-the-scenes position with the promotion so this was her first real event in her new job.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 181.
The event opened with a public signing ceremony for a DDT Universal Championship match Sunday between MAO & Demus (Mexico).
The opening was then by SCHADENFREUDE, a new faction formed by Chris Brookes of himself, Masa Takanashi, Antonio Honda and maybe someone else. They promised to begin taking over DDT by winning the KO-ad 6-Man Tag Team Championship today. Sounds more like just renaming CDK.
Match 1: Demus beat Kazuma Sumi. Borderline squash.
Match 2: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament: Jun Akiyama, Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi beat Chris Brookes, Masa Takanashi & Antonio Honda. Doeno pinned Honda after Danshoku Driver. Yeah, nice backing up that promise Brookes. HAHA.
Match 3: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament: Yuki Ueno, MAO & Toi Kojima beat Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON. Ueno pinned Paul after BME.
Match 4: Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku beat Takashi Yoshida (Dragon Gate) & Rukiya. Okada pinned Rukiya after Sudden Death.
Match 5: In a DDT Trivia King Death Match, where a trivia question had to be answered correctly after a pinfall/submission to win, DDT Extreme Champion Kazuki Hirata beat MIKAMI to retain the title. V5 for Hirata. They also traded the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship during this with MIKAMI becoming the 1592nd Champion then Hirata becoming the 1593rd Champion.
Match 6: Sanshiro Takagi, HARASHIMA, Kazusada Higuchi & Akito beat Takao Soma, Shota, Tetsuya Endo & Yukio Naya. Akito beat Soma with a Figure 4. Afterwards, Akito issued a KO-D Tag Team Championship challenge on behalf of himself & Toru Sugiura. That match will happen on 12/2.
Main Event: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals: Jun Akiyama, Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi beat Yuki Ueno, MAO & Toi Kojima to win the tournament and the vacant titles. Akiyama, Dieno & Oishi become the 53rd KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Dieno pinned Kojima after Danshoku Driver. Afterwards in backstage comments Akiyama announced he will leave the Burning faction by the end of the year. That would leave Endo, Okada & Koroku in the faction.
The next event is a Street Wrestling event Saturday at Tenjin Misaki Sports Park in Fukushima. This is a free one-match event. There will be no live broadcast. Fans that attend are encouraged to take pictures and upload them to the organizer’s official social media accounts for a chance to win prizes.
