DDT runs their penultimate event of 2023 today and will finish up the preliminary round of the D KING GP 2023 as well. It’s gotten a little less dramatic because today’s lineup has become decimated by injury and illness and that will affect the tournament, namely Block B-Rei Saito was in a must-win situation today but got gifted a free win because opponent Chris Brookes is out doe to injury/illness (malignant tumor in abdomen). And before a must-win for both that screwed MAO because he now can’t advance to the Final even if he beats Yukio Naya because of tiebreakers (he lost to Saito). So Naya advances if he wins, Saito advances if MAO wins or it’s a draw. Yusuke Okada is also out due to illness and Yuki Ishida, just after coming back from injury, is back on the shelf again long-term. There is plenty of other stuff happening today but the focus is the tournament: In Block A, 4 still have a chance to advance so it almost certainly will come down to tiebreakers after the matches unless the simplest scenario occurs, that’s Kazusada Higuchi winning to advance. But if it’s Yuki Ueno & Daisuke Sasaki tied at the top *should both win and Higuchi lose), things get interesting because their match result was a draw.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. Japanese actor Takumi Momose will be a special guest on commentary. There are 2 title matches although one is for the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship, and I think they’ll want to be done in time for viewers to switch over to Tokyo Joshi Pro’s event later today so I anticipate the total running time being 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Yukio Sakaguchi & Rukiya vs. MJ Paul & KANON
Battle Royal for the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship. Participants announced so far: Toru Owashi, Sanshiro Takagi, Kazuki Hirata, Kazuma Sumi, Akito, TBA (open recruitment slots), presumably Great Koji (current champion-supposedly is really Toi Kojima)
Rei Saito vs. Hideki Okatani
KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Jun Akiyama, Danshoku DIeno & Makoto Oishi vs. Masa Takanashi, Antonio Honda & Takeshi Masada for the titles
D KING GP:
Block B: MAO vs. Yukio Naya. Naya advances with win. Otherwise Saito advances
Block A: Daisuke Sasaki vs. HARASHIMA. Sasaki must win
Block A: Yuki Ueno vs. Yuki Iino. Ueno must win
Block A: Tetsuya Endo vs. Kazusada Higuchi. Higuchi advances with win
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
6:23 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Yours hosts are Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano and special guest Takumi Momose.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd is still filing in but they’re using their usual reduced capacity setup opposite hard-camera and it’s Christmas Eve so that may keep the crowd down (although the Tokyo Joshi Pro event after this is now a legit advance sellout). I’ll estimate it’ll be around 500. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 761, a full house/near sellout)
The matches should begin in about 15 minutes.
The matches begin at 6:33 PM PT.
Match 1: Yukio Sakaguchi & Rukiya vs. MJ Paul & KANON. 30 minute time limit
Result: MJ Paul & KANON beat Yukio Sakaguchi & Rukiya. KANON beat Rukiya with a cobra twist.
Match 2: (At least a 7 man) Battle Royal for the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship. Staggered entry. Over the top rope elimination rules in effect. No time limit. Participants (order of entry): Kazuki Hirata, Toru Owashi, Akito, Kazuma Sumi, Sanshiro Takagi, DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Great Koji (Toi Kojima), Poison Sawada JULIE
Order of elimination: Akito by Takagi, Sumi by Takagi, Hirata by Takagi, Takagi by JULIE, Kojima by JULIE to win the title, JULIE by Owashi to win the title
Result: Toru Owashi wins to win the title, last liminating Poison Sawada JULIE who beat Great Koji to win the title. JULIE became the 1597th Champion. Owashi becomes the 1598th Champion. And inadvertently left without the title belt so GM IMabayashi had to retrieve it and run after him.
Your new host is Ken Kato for now.
Match 3: Rei Saito (All-Japan) vs. Hideki Okatani. 30 minute time limit
Result: Rei Saito beat Hideki Okatani. Glorified squash.
Match 4: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Jun Akiyama, Danshoku DIeno & Makoto Oishi vs. Masa Takanashi, Antonio Honda & Takeshi Masada for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Jun Akiyama, Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi beat Masa Takanashi, Antonio Honda & Takeshi Masada to retain the titles. Oishi pinned Honda with a rollup after reversing a rollup. V1 for the champs.
Quick break for GM Imabayashi’s opening-at-mid-event announcements.
D KING GP 2023 Block B: Rei Saito beat Chris Brookes by forfeit (withdrawal-injury).
Match 5: D KING GP 2023 Block B; MAO vs. Yukio Naya. If Naya wins, he wins Block B and advances to the Finals. If MAO wins or it’s a draw, Rei Saito advances. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yukio Naya beat MAO. As a result, Naya wins Block B and advances to the Finals. Naya had the tiebreaker over Saito by winning their match. He will face the Block A winner on 1/4/24.
Match 6: D KING GP 2023 Block A: Daisuke Sasaki vs. HARASHIMA. Sasaki must win. 30 minute time limit
Result: HARASHIMA beat Daisuke Sasaki. Sasaki is OUT. That means Yuki Ueno can now win Block A with a win AND Kazusada Higuchi loss.
Match 7: D KING GP 2023 Block A: Yuki Ueno vs. Yuki Iino. Ueno must win. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Iino beat Yuki Ueno. As a result, the main event winner wins Block A.
Main Event: D KING GP 2023 Block A: Kazusada Higuchi vs. Tetsuya Endo. The winner wins Block A (Endo would have tiebreaker with a win). If it’s a draw, Higuchi wins Block A. 30 minute time limit
Result: Tetsuya Endo beat Kazusada Higuchi. As a result, Endo wins Block A and will face Naya in the Finals.
Afterwards, Naya, who had been watching from one of the entrances, came to the ring to join Endo and GM Imabayashi in the ring. Promo time.
The Final is on 1/3.
After all this, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey is played as the roster comes out in Santa outfits, hats and more with goody bags filled with candy and goodies to be thrown into the crowd. Referee Dsiauke Kiso even brings out a small tree. Kazuki Hirata with microphone to deliver Christmas greetings & wishes to the fans. And then he attacked Toru Owashi with the tree! Which led to…
The Christmas Tree beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Toru Owashi to win the title. The Tree becomes the 1599th Champion. The entire roster made the pinfall, but the tree was directly on top of Owashi and declared the champion. Takagi with microphone. He said a few year-end words before handing off to Ueno for the KO-D Openweight Champion’s send-off. He had the fans all stand and led the roster in a shout of “Merry Christmas, Thank You!” followed by a 2023 highlight video to end the event with the final sendoff: Thank You To DDT Universe And Have A Happy New Year!
The next event is 12/31 with a year-end 1-day 6-man tag team tournament. There will be no live broadcast (unusual because it’s at Korakuen). Before commentary signed off to end the broadcast, it was announced that SKE48 member Marika Tani will return as a guest on commentary for the 1/3 event.
UPDATE: In post-match backstage comments shared on the socials, Daisuke Sasaki claimed he was going to retire. Maybe in a year. We shall see if anything comes of this.
