After once again being part of “The Collective” in the US ahead of WWE WrestleMania, DDT is back in Japan for a short-turnaround event, their monthly tentpole tour beginner/ender in Tokyo-APRIL FOOL 2024. It sounds like everyone made it back safely ahead of today’s event, which has 2 title matches scheduled: First up is DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata vs. Hi69, coming over from Pro Wrestling NOAH, for the title in a “Lucky Draw! Calling for Pain Survival Kuji Great Battle!” (or something like that), which is no rope escapes or countouts, win only by pinfall or submission and various weapons will be available. In the second title match, KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino defend the titles against Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga. The main event will feature a couple of Englanders teaming up as Zack Sabre Jr. comes over from New Japan Pro Wrestling to team with Chris Brookes against Yuki Ueno & MAO, just back from the US. Additionally, this will be the last time Hideki Okatani will be seen for a while as after today, he will be having ACL/knee surgery and will be out at least several months.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. Actor Takumi Momose will be a special guest on commentary. There is now a pre-show match scheduled for 30 minutes before the event’s planned start time, so adding that in I anticipate this will be a “normal” Korakuen event with a total running time of about 3 hours. It will be going up against the last hour or two of WrestleMania Night 1 so I might be a little behind early on with updates.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Unpaid RUMBLE FINAL! aka Battle Royal
Main show:
Yuni & Yuya Koroku vs. Illusion & Munetatsu Nakamura
Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. HARASHIMA, Yoshitatsu & Takeshi Masada and Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okatani and Danshoku Dieno, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi in a 4-way
D GENERATIONS CUP Final: To-y vs. Rukiya
Shinya Aoki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto
DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata vs. Hi69 for the title
KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino vs. Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga for the titles
Chris Brookes & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Yuki Ueno & MAO
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:45 PM PT/9:45 PM ET. The pre-show match is scheduled to begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET.
6:45 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in 15 minutes for the pre-show match.
6:57 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano and special guest Takumi Momose.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd will still be filing in over the next 30+ minutes but it looks like it’s set up for their usual 1000-1100. Based on advance ticket sales they’re probably trending for in the 700s. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1334, a super full house/very bear sellout. Unusually late arriving crowd, maybe due to WrestleMania? Night 1 ran against the first half of today’s event)
Pre-show match: Unpaid Fighter Battle Royal. Entrants are Sanshiro Takagi, Toru Owashi, Akito and a ridiculous(ly long) list of comedy characters
Result: Sayaka Unagi won. She was the last entrant and eliminated Takagi. All the other participants were comedy impersonations of wrestlers or people who probably were extras, interns, etc. Even a teenage boy was in it. Afterwards, A Takagi-Unagi match for the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship currently held by Unagi was made for the future. Takagi then had all the participants come back in and crowd into and around the ring for the group photo op.
Main show:
Coming up momentarily as the pre-show went just over 30 minutes.
The matches begin at 7:35 PM PT/10:35 PM ET.
Match 1: Yuni & Yuya Koroku vs. Illusion & Munetatsu Nakamura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuni & Yuya Koroku beat Illusion & Munetatsu Nakamura. Koroku beat Illusion with a cross armbar/wrist lock.
Match 2: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. HARASHIMA, Yoshitatsu & Takeshi Masada and Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okatani and Danshoku Dieno, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi in a 4-way. 30 minute time limit. At the start, all 4 teams each were placed in a different corner of the venue and when the bell rang, they all rushed to the ring to begin the match.
Result: Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okatani beat Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON,. HARASHIMA, Yoshitatsu & Takeshi Masada and Danshoku Dieno, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi in a 4-way when Okatani pinned Sumi.
Match 3: D GENERATIONS CUP Final: To-y vs. Rukiya. No time limit
Result: To-y beat Rukiya to win the tournament. As a result, Yo-y gets into KING OF DDT 2024. They then announce the Round 1 matches for the tournament, so To-y’s “reward” is KANON. Round 1 is 5/5 at Korakuen.
Quick break for the opening announcements. During them, it was announced that Unagi-Takagi will be on 4/26 at Sumida City Gym in Tokyo along with a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship match and KO-D Openweight Champion Yuki Ueno vs. Akito for the title. UPDATE: Yuki Ishida also came out here and announced he will return on 5/16.
Match 4: Shinya Aoki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls). 15 minute time limit
Result: Time Limit Draw
Match 5: DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata vs. Hi69 (Pro Wrestling NOAH) in a Great Kuji Survival Match for the title. No rope escapes, no countouts, lucky weapons are in each corner that can be used. 1 Hour time limit
Result: DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata beat Hi69 to retain the title. V2 for Katsumata.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Match 6: KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino vs. Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino beat Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga to retain the titles. Iino pinned Matsunaga after a lariat. V2 for the champs.
Main Event: Chris Brookes & Zack Sabre Jr. (New Japan) vs. Yuki Ueno & MAO. 30 minute time limit
Result: Time Limit Draw
The next event is Saturday at Nishitetsu Hall in Fukuoka. There will be no live broadcast.
