DDT holds their monthly major event today, “What Are You Doing 2023”, the last big event before next month’s WRESTLE PETER PAN which is DDT’s biggest event of the year. This card may have implications for that event, and the full card will be announced at the end of today’s event. 2 matches for vacant titles headline today’s event: First, Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul face Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima for the KO-D Tag Team Championship, then in the main event MAO, Kazuki Hirata & Yoshihiko face off in a 3-way for the DDT Extreme Championship. As each title match usually has some kind of stip, this time it will be an elimination match. Shunma Katsumata, who had to vacate both titles in May due to injury, will be a special guest witness for the main event.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. You also can watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube, which will be a pre-show dark match and the first match of the main card. Voice actor Kenta Tanaka will be a special guest on commentary today and Katsumata will join commentary for the main event. There will be a pre-show match scheduled to begin 30 minutes before the event. Including the pre-show I anticipate today’s event running close to 3 hours total.
Today’s lineup (in order):
Pre-show: Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno, Yuni & Toru Owashi vs. Akito, Takao Soma, Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya
Main show:
Naruki Doi vs. Takeshi Masada
Ryota Nakatsu, Yuki Ishida, Yuya Koroku & Yusuke Okada vs. Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai, Hideki Okatani & Sanshiro Takagi
HARASHIMA vs. Minoru Fujita
Tetsuya Endo vs. Nick Wayne
Yuji Hino, Jun Akiyama & Makoto Oishi vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Masa Takanashi & Antonio Honda
Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul vs. Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima for the vacant KO-D Tag Team Championship
MAO vs. Kazuki Hirata & Yoshihiko in a 3-way elimination match for the vacant DDT Extreme Championhip
The entire WRESTLE PETER PAN match card will be announced after the main event
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin at 6:45 PM PT/9:45 PM ET.
6:45 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has just begun. Updates will begin when we go to the venue.
7:05 PM PT UPDATE:Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Ken Kato, Kagehiro Osano & Kenta Tanaka.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Crowd still filing in but the opposite-camera-side bleacher seats are tarped off on either side (only using the middle seats). Not much on the floor outside the bleachers on either side so I’m thinking it’ll be around 650. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 755)
Pre-show match: Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno, Yuni & Toru Owashi vs. Akito, Takao Soma, Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya. 15 minute time limit. Before Pheromones enter, Akito with microphone. Sounds like a comedy promo about Pheromones. Perhaps a request of GM Imabayashi as well. Interrupted by those deplorable Pheromones for their entrance of course.
Result: No Contest. GM Imabayashi Stoppage. Probably to spare Yuni the wrath of those deplorable Pheromones. Naturally this was a comedy match.
Updates will resume when the main show matches begin in about 20-25 minutes (as of 7:20 PM PT). During the opening announcements GM Imabayashi brings out Shota of Ganbare Pro to promote their biggest event of the year, WRESTLE SEKIGAHARA 2, which is on 7/9 at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo. The opening start call is delivered by Chris Brookes, who will return from injury in a couple weeks ahead of his KO-D Openweight Championship match against Yuji Hino at WRESTLE PETER PAN, which he earned by winning the KING OF DDT Tournament.
Main show:
The matches begin at 7:35 PM PT. Your host today is Ken Kato. Haruo Murata is in Canada to do Japanese commentary for the All Elite Wrestling/New Japan Pro Wrestling “Forbidden Door” PPV tomorrow for New Japan World (with Miki Motoi).
Match 1: Naruki Doi vs. Takeshi Masada. 30 minute time limit
Result: Naruki Doi beat Takeshi Masada
Match 2: Ryota Nakatsu, Yuki Ishida, Yuya Koroku & Yusuke Okada vs. Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai, Hideki Okatani & Sanshiro Takagi. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ryota Nakatsu, Yuki Ishida, Yuya Koroku & Yusuke Okada beat Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai, Hideki Okatani & Sanshiro Takagi. Ishida pinned Sakaguchi. UPSET ALERT! Sakaguchi beat down Ishida a little more afterwards before storming off.
Big match announcement: DDT BIG BANG 2023 on 9/9 at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo will feature a KO-D Openweight Championship match.
The YouTube broadcast ends here. It did not include the pre-show match.
Match 3: HARASHIMA vs. Minoru Fujita. 30 minute time limit
Result: HARASHIMA beat Minoru Fujita by DQ. Fujita low blow on the referee.
Yukio Naya makes a surprise appearance. He announced what sounded like his potential return from injury, which could be at WRESTLE PETER PAN next month. (Update: It will be at WRESTLE PETER PAN)
Match 4: Tetsuya Endo vs. Nick Wayne. 30 minute time limit (Wayne, who just graduated high school a week or so ago and just turned 18 or is about to, is headed to All Elite Wrestling later this summer. He was signed to a deal a couple years ago that would take effect once he was old enough to legally compete in the US, meaning age 18). Endo’s also sporting some light blue/turquoise hair at the ends now.
Result: Tetsuya Endo beat Nick Wayne
Match 5: Yuji Hino, Jun Akiyama & Makoto Oishi vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Masa Takanashi & Antonio Honda. 30 minute time limit. For this match Akiyama came out looking like the “American Badass” version of The Undertaker, wearing Omega gear just for this match. Nice! It looked good on him!
Chris Brookes joins commentary for this match.
Result: Yuji Hino, Jun Akiyama & Makoto Oishi beat Kazusada Higuchi, Masa Takanashi & Antonio Honda. Hino beat Honda with a King Kong sleeper. Mostly comedy match but Hino & Higuchi had their BEEF moments. Afterwards, Oishi with microphone. As he apparently taunted the lsoers and Brookes, Hino snatched the microphone from him. Some comedy before further taunting Brookes as a promo for their match at WRESTLE PETER PAN.
Shunma Katsumata greets the crowd from the commentary area. He joins commentary for the rest of the event.
Match 6: Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul vs. Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima for the vacant KO-D Tag Team Championship. 1 Hour time limit
During the opening moments, Sasaki attacked Katsumata with one of his crutches at commentary.
Result: Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul beat Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima to win the vacant KO-D Tag Team Championship. Sasaki & Paul become the 77th KO-D Tag Team Champions. Sasaki beat Kojima with a crossface. KANON appeared and interfered to help at the end despite being injured (arm/elbow in a sling).
Main Event: MAO vs. Kazuki Hirata & Yoshihiko in a 3-way elimination match for the vacant DDT Extreme Championship. 1 Hour time limit
In progress.
Result: Yoshihiko eliminated first by both MAO & Kazuki Hirata. Kazuki Hirata then beat MAO to win the title. Hirata becomes the 58th DDT Extreme Champion. Hirata apparently has also chosen his first challenger: HARASHIMA. Accepted. GM Imabayashi made it official. Sounds like it will be at the next Korakuen event, which is Summer Vacation 2023 on 7/29.
Coming up shortly: The full WRESTLE PETER PAN card. And here it is:
Takeshi Masada vs. Kazuma Sumi
Sanshiro Takagi, Shinichiro Kawamatsu & Yuni vs. Masa Takanashi, Toi Kojima & Rukiya
Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno & Yumehito Imanari vs. Akito, Takao Soma & Yoshitomo Shimohigashi
Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs. Minoru Fujita, MJ Paul & KANON and Kotaro Suzuki, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku in a 3-way
Chiitan* & Pokotan vs. Andreza Giant Panda & Super Sasadango Machine
HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya vs. Jun Akiyama & Shigehiro Irie
KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Kazusada Higuchi, Ryota Nakatsu & Yuki Ishida vs. Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Hideki Okatani for the titles
TAKA Michinoku vs. MAO
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuki Ueno
Daisuke Sasaki vs. El Desperado
DDT Universal Champion Tetsuya Endo vs. Matt Cardona for the title
KO-D Openweight Champion Yuji Hino vs. Chris Brookes for the title
And that’ll do it for today!
The next event is “Yokohama Unlimited SPECIAL” on 7/1 at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.
