DDT wraps up the 20th Anniversary KING OF DDT Tournament today with the Semifinals and Finals. The winner should get a KO-D Openweight Championship match in the near future, but it may not be until WRESTLE PETER PAN and it may not be against current champion Yuki Ueno, who has to next defend in a couple weeks against Sanshiro Takagi. The final four are MAO, Kazusada Higuchi, Chris Brookes & Daisuke Sasaki, and those in order are the Semifinals with the Finals being the main event. Some WRESTLE PETER PAN announcements have also been promised today, and former wrestler Saki Akai will make a pre-event appearance in person.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. Voice actor Kentaro Kumagai will be a special guest on commentary. There will be a pre-show match 15 minutes before the scheduled start time. Including that match, and with the tournament matches having no time limit, it will probably be a normal running time for this type of event, meaning around 2 1/2 hours and plenty of time to get to Ryogoku Kokugikan for the final day of grand sumo and the top-tier championship matches.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Yuni & Keigo Nakamura vs. Illusion & Kazuma Sumi
Main show:
KANON & MJ Paul vs. HARASHIMA & Akito
KING OF DDT Semifinals:
MAO vs. Kazusada Higuchi
Chris Brookes vs. Daisuke Sasaki
Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs, Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi and Yukio Naya & Takeshi Masada in a 3-way
Tetsuya Endo, Yuki Iino & Yuya Koroku vs. Poison Sawada JULIE, Shuji Ishikawa & Masa Takanashi
Yuki Ueno, Shunma Katsumata & To-y vs. Sanshiro Takagi, Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga
KING OF DDT Finals (Semifinal winners)
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 7:15 PM PT/10:15 PM ET. The live stream begins at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET.
7:15 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Satoshi Dairaku, Kagehiro Osano & special guest Kentaro Kumagai.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd is still filing in but they have slightly higher than normal capacity with some bleacher seats open behind commentary on the opposite hard-camera side. Hopefully they can get to around 1000 but based on advance sales it’ll probably be closer to 800. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1005, a full house/near sellout)
Pre-show match: Yuni & Keigo Nakamura vs. Illusion & Kazuma Sumi. 15 minute time limit
Result: Yuni & Keigo Nakamura beat Illusion & Kazuma Sumi. Nakamura pinned Sumi.
Main show:
The matches begin at 7:35 PM PT/10:35 PM ET.
Match 1: KANON & MJ Paul vs. HARASHIMA & Akito. 30 minute time limit
Result: KANON & MJ Paul beat HARASHIMA & Akito. KANON pinned Akito.
Preview video for the next match. Your host when we return is Haruo Murata.
Match 2: KING OF DDT Semifinals: MAO vs. Kazusada Higuchi. No time limit
Result: MAO beat Kazusada Higuchi. As a result, MAO advances to the Finals to face the winner of the next match in the main event.
Match 3: KING OF DDT Semifinals: Chris Brookes vs. Daisuke Sasaki. It has been changed last-second to a No DQ match. No time limit
Result: Daisuke Sasaki beat Chris Brookes. As a result, Sasaki advances to the Finals and will face MAO in the main event. No repeat for Brookes.
Video promo from Effy of Game Changer Wrestling for their joint event with DDT on 8/12 at Korakuen followed by GM Imabayashi with the normally-opening announcements.
Match 4: Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs, Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi and Yukio Naya & Takeshi Masada in a 3-way. 30 minute time limit
Result: Danshoku DIeno & Makoto Oishi beat Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata and Yukio Naya & Takeshi Masada in a 3-way before Naya & Masada even got to the ring when Oishi pinned Owashi during their entrance. GM Imabayashi with microphone immediately. Absolute EN FUEGO. Which led to…
Match 4 (again): Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs, Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi and Yukio Naya & Takeshi Masada in a 3-way. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yukio Naya & Takeshi Masada beat Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata and Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi in a 3-way when Naya pinned both Hirata & Oishi simultaneously.
Match 5: Tetsuya Endo, Yuki Iino & Yuya Koroku vs. Poison Sawada JULIE, Shuji Ishikawa & Masa Takanashi. 30 minute time limit. Alternate personas for Endo & Iino actually as they both have JULIE-style face paint and there has been a last-second change as JULIE & Kotoku have swapped sides…
Result: Yuya Koroku, Shuji Ishikawa & Masa Takanashi beat Tetsuya Endo, Yuki Iino & Poison Sawada JULIE. Koroku pinned JULIE after a moonsault press.
7/21 announcement: Konosuke Takeshita was already announced for the event, and now his opponent is revealed…Masato Tanaka! Another announcement for 7/21 is planned for after the main event to end the show.
Match 6: Yuki Ueno, Shunma Katsumata & To-y vs. Sanshiro Takagi, Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Ueno, Shunma Katsumata & Toy beat Sanshiro Takagi, Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga. Ueno pinned Matsunaga after WR.
Main Event: KING OF DDT Finals: MAO vs. Daisuke Sasaki. No time limit
Result: MAO beat Daisuke Sasaki to win the tournament. First time winning. As a result, MAO will almost certainly get a KO-D Openweight Championship in the future, which could well be against The37Kamiina factionmate Yuki Ueno. Ueno came out post-match to maybe set it up, but he’s gotta get through Sanshiro Takagi first of course, at least I’m assuming that’s the plan. Of course this brought out Takagi to play spoiler promo. Either way MAO likely has the winner, and they’re talking like it will be on 7/21. They chug beers and Takagi teases the Stunner but it’s just a friendly toast. This time. MAO finished the promo and posed for teh obligatory ringside media photos to end the show.
Post-main event announcement is what looks like a special photo collaboration/book release on 7/21.
The next event is a free mini-event Saturday at Takashimaya 1st floor JR Train Station Exit Special Venue in Tokyo. There will be no live broadcast.
The next “regular” event is 6/5 at Shinjuku Face with Ueno-Takagi for the KO-D Openweight Championship. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.
UPDATE: It’s now official. MAO gets the Ueno-Takagi winner on 7/21 for the KO-D Openweight Championship.
