Tag: DDT

DDT continued the GOD BLESS DDT 2023 Tour today with the first part of a weekend doubleheader in Hokkaido.

Today’s event was held at Sapporo E-One Arena in Hokkaido and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date (likely Tuesday). There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 233.

There were some last-minute changes to the card due to no Yuki Ueno. Fever. Also out tomorrow.

Match 1: Akito beat Danshoku Dieno.

Match 2: Daisuke Sasaki & KANON beat Takuya Tou (?) & Yusuke Okada. Sasaki beat Okada with a crossface.

Match 3: Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Hideki Okatani beat Sanshiro Takagi, Makoto Oishi & Kazuma Sumi. Sakaguchi beat Oishi with a modified triangle choke.

Match 4: Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada beat TakaakI Iwasaki & Rukiya. Higuchi pinned Rukiya after Doctor Bomb.

Match 5: Tetsuya Endo & Takashi Yoshida (Dragon Gate) beat Jun Akiyama & Yuya Koroku. Endo pinned Koroku after Burning Star Press.

Main Event: Chris Brookes, HARASHIMA & Kazuki Hirata beat MAO, Yukio Naya & Toi Kojima. Brookes pinned Kojima after Praying Mantis Bomb.

The next event is tomorrow with a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship match. There will be no live broadcast.

There is still something going around Japan when it comes to illnesses/injuries, and it has DDT’d DDT again as they announced Yuki Ueno is now on the sidelines. Fever. Out this weekend (2 events). Shouldn’t miss time beyond that but it’s not good timing as he’s next up for KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes.

More as it becomes available.

DDT ran 2 events yesterday and today, continuing the GOD BLESS DDT 2023 Tour yesterday and following up with a free mini-event today.

Yesterday’s event was held at Sanjo City Welfare Hall in Niigata and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 253, a full house/near sellout.

Match 1: Yusuke Okada beat Rukiya.

Match 2: Daisuke Sasaki & KANON beat Takeshi Masada & Kazuma Sumi. KANON pinned Sumi after Sleepy Hollow.

Match 3: Super Sasadango Machine beat Danshoku DIeno & Kazuki Hirata in a 3-way by pinning Dieno. Sanjo City Mayor Ryo Takizawa, in attendance for the event, interfered to help Machine win. Machine headbutted the Mayor then and demanded a match, which did not happen.

Match 4: Yukio Naya beat MJ Paul.

Match 5: Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani beat Tetsuya Endo & Yuya Koroku. Okatani pinned Koroku with a double arm suplex.

Match 6: All-Asia Tag Team Champions Jun Akiyama & Kotaro Suzuki beat Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu (All-Japan) to retain the titles. Akiyama pinned Omori after a wrist-clutch Exploder. V1 for the champs. Next up: Sakaguchi & Okatani. That match will happen on 11/3 at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and will be held under PWF (All-Japan) Rules.

Main Event: Yuki Ueno, MAO & Toi Kojima beat HARASHIMA, Kazusada Higuchi & Akito. Ueno pinned Akito after WR.

Today’s event was held at Akos Event Square in Saitama and should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.

The attendance was not announced because this was a free event. It was also an outdoor event.

Match 1: Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Hideki Okatani beat Kazuki Hirata, Danshoku Dieno & Kazuma Sumi. Okatani pinned Sumi with a double arm suplex.

Match 2: Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku beat Akito, Yukio Naya, Takeshi Masada & Rukiya. Endo pinned Rukiya after a swiveling torture rack bomb.

Match 3: HARASHIMA, Kazusada Higuchi & Antonio Honda beat Yuki Ueno, MAO & Toi Kojima. HARASHIMA pinned Kojima after Blue Sword. HARASHIMA was presented with a special sponsor prize afterwards for being the winner.

The next event is Saturday at Sapporo E-One Arena in Hokkaido for a weekend doubleheader. There will be no live broadcasts.

DDT has announced the full card for their 11/12 blowout event at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, which is also the Saki Akai Retirement Event. Akai’s final match will be a loaded trios match as she teams with Eruption factionmates Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani to face a CyberFight all-star trio of Naomichi Marufuji from Pro Wresting NOAH, Miyu Yamashita from Tokyo Joshi Pro, and Kazusada Higuchi.

The full card:
KANON & MJ Paul vs. Naruki Doi & Kazuma Sumi, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku, Toi Kojima & Yuki Ishida and Takeshi Masada & Rukiya in a 5-way
Tokyo Joshi Pro 6-woman tag match. Participants will be announced at 10/9 TJPW event
Sanshiro Takagi, Akito, Makoto Oishi & Shinichiro Kawamatsu vs. Yoshitatsu, Yoshihiko, Danshoku Dieno & Super Sasadango Machine
Jun Akiyama, HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya vs. Toshizo, Jun & Rei Saito (All-Japan)
Daisuke Sasaki vs. Tetsuya Endo
Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan) vs. Kazuki Hirata
KO-D Tag Team Champions Takao Soma & Shota vs. Masa Takanashi & Antonio Honda for the titles
DDT Universal Champion Matt Cardona vs. MAO for the title
Saki Akai Retirement Match-“Strong, Noble, Beautiful”-Saki Akai, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani vs. Naomichi Marufuji, Miyu Yamashita & Kazusada Higuchi
Chris Jericho (All Elite Wrestling) vs. Konosuke Takeshita
KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes vs. Yuki Ueno for the title

DDT began the GOD BLESS SDT 2023 Tour today with what was billed as the farewell event for the Pheromones as they had to disband after today. Whether or not that’s good is up to you.

Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTE UNIVERSE.

The announced paid attendance was 436, a super full house/very near sellout.

The main event was changed from an 8-man tag to a handicap match ahead of time because of a Koju Takeda injury.

Match 1: Takeshi Masada & Kazuma Sumo beat Kazuki Hirata & Makoto Oishi, with Masada pinning Hirata to win the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship. Masada becomes the 1580th Champion. This set up a double title match on 10/22.

Match 2: Jun Akiyama, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku beat Hideki Okatani, Yukio Naya & Rukiya. Okada pinned Rukiya after Sudden Death.

Match 3: Tetsuya Endo & Kazusada Higuchi beat Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul. Higuchi pinned Paul after Brain Claw Slam.

Match 4: Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai beat HARASHIMA & Gota Ihashi. Sakaguchi pinned Ihashi after New Face Award. Afterwards, Akai chose Sanshiro Takagi, Akito & Makoto Oishi to get the next KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship match. That match will happen on 10/15 in Hokkaido.

Match 5: Takao Soma & Shota beat KO-D Tag Team Champions Minoru Fujita & KANON to win the titles. Soma & Shota become the 80th KO-D Tag Team Champions. Shota beat Fujita with Gannosuke Clutch. Next up: Masa Takanashi & Antonio Honda. That match will happen on 11/12 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

Main Event: Pheromones Final-In a Handicap Match, Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno & Yumehito Imanari vs. Akito, Yuki Ueno, MAO & Toi Kojima went to a no contest. GM Imabayashi stoppage. Which led to…
Impromptu Match: Yuki Iino beat GM Imabayashi by submission in 58 seconds. This may not be the end of those deplorable Pheromons as Akito declared a “Pheromone Trial” will begin at midnight tonight (8 AM PT/11 AM ET today). Check the YouTube and the socials…may be the end, may not be…

The next event is Saturday at Sanjo City Welfare Hall in Niigata. There will be no live broadcast.

In a post he made on Japanese micro-blogging service Note, which I loosely translated after DDT shared it on social media, Yumehito Imanari says he is leaving CyberFight Corporation, the owner of DDT, Ganbare Pro, Tokyo Joshi Pro and Pro Wrestling NOAH. However, his post suggests he is only stepping away from backstage & production roles he held and will still be part of Ganbare as a wrestler (where he was not one of those deplorable Pheromones like in DDT).

Imanari noted he would like to work as a freelance video artist & director (he did a lot of that with DDT after joining them in 2010) but was also considering taking a break from work and wrestling, which would only be in Ganbare for now. Imanari was seen on this week’s All Elite Wrestling “AEW Dynamite” program when he & Kota Ibushi were attacked at Ibushi’s dojo in Japan by Don Callis & Konosuke Takeshita ahead of Ibushi appearing Sunday at the WrestleDream event.

Imanari has at least one more match ahead in DDT, the final Pheromones match Wednesday before they must disband (the group was Imanari, Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno and, more recently on occasion, Koju Takeda, who is from the 666 promotion).

DDT and its sub-promotions just can’t seem to shake the injury bug recently, and now word comes of ANOTHER wrestler down temporarily-this time it’s Sanshiro Takagi. Keratoconjunctivis. In simpler terms, dry eye or possibly pinkeye. Out at least this weekend. This comes just after word that Chris Brookes will be out 2 weeks with a shoulder injury that won’t affect his wrestlinf.

A potentially major DDT injury item is coming out of this past weekend today, potentially major because it’s KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes. Right shoulder. Out at least 1 week and possibly longer, we may know more Friday after a medical exam. This would suggest it happened Sunday when he beat Saki Akai by submission to retain the title.

More as it becomes available.

9/28 UPDATE: DDT announced the exam results-some shoulder damage but won’t interfere with wrestling. Out 2 weeks and will return on 10/14. He was to have challenged for the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship this weekend. HARASHIMA is the replacement.

DDT runs their tour-ending monthly major Tokyo event today, with the focus remaining on Saki Akai and the final chapter of her 10-year career. Today may be the biggest match of her career as she gets her first real chance, and likely only chance, at the KO-D Openweight Championship after Chris Brookes named her the next challenger after his first successful defense. She already has a couple of 6-man tag team championships to her name recently but this no doubt would top them if she can somehow win it, and I hope she does even though her reign would be short with retirement only 2 months away. There’s also a DDT Universal Championship match as new champion Matt Cardona has an odd challenger himself tonight, as he defends against Tokyo Joshi Pro’s Maki Itoh. Konosuke Takeshita is also back from AEW for a singles match…and no, The Callous Hand Of Don will not be with him.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. Toru Owashi is scheduled to be a guest on Japanese commentary. You can also watch the first 3 matches (pre-show dark match and 2 main card matches) FOR FREE on YouTube. There is a pre-show match scheduled 15 minutes before event time, which will be streamed live. Additionally, a public signing ceremony for the 10/4 KO-D Tag Team Championship match will be held 30 minutes before the event and probably will stream as well. With all the pre-show happenings factored in, the event will probably have a total running time of at least 3 hours, close to 3 1/2 hours.

Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
10/4 KO-D Tag Team Championship Public Signing Ceremony
Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku vs. Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya

Main Show:
Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. Hideki Okatani, Yuni & Takeshi Masada
Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda and Naruki Doi & Kazuki Hirata in a 3-way
Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama, Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya vs. Yuji Hino, Makoto Oishi, HARASHIMA & Yukio Sakaguchi
Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Dan Tamura
DDT Universal Champion Matt Cardona vs. Maki Itoh for the title
Konosuke Takeshita vs. MAO
KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes vs. Saki Akai for the title

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:45 PM PT/9:45 PM ET.

6:45 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. The event will begin in 15 minutes.

7 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Commentary will start soon.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. They’re using the smaller opposite hard-camera layout so reduced capacity, but advance ticket sales were strong. The crowd is still filing in and will be for about 30 more minutes. The smaller apacity layout will probably keep the attendance down around 800. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 917, a super full house/very near sellout)

Pre-show:
A public signing ceremony for the 10/4 KO-D Tag Team Championship match is first. Champions Minoru Fujita & KANON and challengers Takao Soma & Shota are present.J
apanese commentary begins at 7:15 PM PT. Your hosts are Haruo Murata & Kagehiro Osano.
Pre-show match: Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku vs. Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya. 15 minute time limit
Result: Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku beat Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya. Koroku beat Rukiya with an armbar.

Main Show:
Coming up shortly.

The matches begin at 7:34 PM PT.

Match 1: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. Hideki Okatani, Yuni & Takeshi Masada. 30 minute time limit
Result: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON beat Hideki Okatani, Yuni & Takeshi Masada. Sasaki pinned Yuni.

Your new host is Ken Kato.

Match 2: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda and Naruki Doi & Kazuki Hirata in a 3-way. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat Akito & Antonio Honda and Naruki Doi & Kazuki Hirata in a 3-way when Iino beat Akito. Assist from Hirata & Honda. Lots of Pheromones comedy afterwards.

The YouTube broadcast (thankfully?) ends here. Toru Owashi joins commentary as a special guest.

Match 3: Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama, Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya vs. Yuji Hino, Makoto Oishi, HARASHIMA & Yukio Sakaguchi. 30 minute time limit
Result: Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama, Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya beat Yuji Hino, Makoto Oishi, HARASHIMA & Yukio Sakaguchi. Naya pinned Oishi after a backdrop. This was Hino’s final match as a regular in DDT, but he may appear again in the future. He did give us one last hearty helping of BEEF with Higuchi. Afterwards, Hino with microphone. He acknowledged fans holding Thank You signs as he addressed the crowd.

Match 4: Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Dan Tamura (All-Japan Pro Wrestling). 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima beat Atsuki Aoyagi & Dan Tamura. Ueno pinned Tamura after BME.

Your new host is Haruo Murata.

Match 5: DDT Universal Champion Matt Cardona vs. Maki Itoh (Tokyo Joshi Pro) for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: DDT Universal Champion Matt Cardona beat Maki Itoh to retain the title. V1 for Cardona. Steph De Lander interference played a big part. Afterwards, Cardona with microphone. In English he dedicated his win to his half-wife Chelsea Green and the greatest Japanese wrestler in history, John Laurinaitis then proclaimed he was unbeatable. The Japanese crowd HATED Cardona.

Match 6: Konosuke Takeshita vs. MAO. 20 minute time limit
Result: Konosuke Takeshita beat MAO. And guess who showed up here? None other than The Callous Hand Of Don (Don Callis). Afterwards, MAO grabbed a cameraman from ringside and dragged him backstage to where Cardona & De Lander were sitting and issued a DDT Universal Championship challenge in English. Accepted then Cardona laid out MAO. MAO cursed out Cardona in English afterwards. This interrupted a post-match promo in Japanese by Takeshita before he handed the microphone to Callis, who continued in English and put Takeshita over, including some of what has been going on in All Elite Wrestling. As they finished, the lights went out and a video played for the crowd…it’s Chris Jericho! It must have been recorded backstage Wednesday because I heard crowd noise. Jericho challenged Takeshita in English Takeshita accepted and they left to Callis’ droning single-tone ambient theme to a match at the last Ryogoku event of the year on 11/12. Accepted then they left to Callis’ droning ambient single-tone noise theme.

Main Event: KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes vs. Saki Akai for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes beat Saki Akai by submission to retain the title. V2 for Brookes. Heartbroken is putting it mildly. 5 star effort from Akai who put up a valiant fight and nearly won on more than one occasion before it ended. Afterwards, Brookes issued a challenge first for the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship held by Akai, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani. That match will happen at the next event as Brookes teams with Masa Takanashi & Mei Suruga for the challenge. Next up: At Ryogoku Brookes chooses…or gets challenged by actually…Yuki Ueno. Now we await the official announcement. (UPDATE: It’s now official. That match will happen on 11/12 at Ryogoku Kokugikan)

The next event is “Saki Akai 10th Anniversary & FINAL COUNTDOWN IN KYOTO!” on 9/30 at Kyoto KBS Hall in Kyoto. There will be no live broadcast.

DDT held 2 separate events yesterday-a mid-major event in Nagoya then a special one-match event held on an actual running bullet train. Yep, only in DDT.

The first event was held at Nagoya International Conference Center Event Hall and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The announced paid attendance was 531, a full house/near sellout.

A public signing ceremony for next week’s KO-D Openweight Championship match between Chris Brookes & Saki Akai was held before the event began.

Match 1: Kazuma Sumi beat Rukiya.

Match 2: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat Sanshiro Takagi & Takeshi Masada and Kazuki Hirata & Akito in a 3-way by ref stoppage (TKO) when Iino beat Masada.

Match 3: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON beat Hideki Okatani, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku. KANON beat Koroku with a cobra twist.

Match 4: Shigehiro Irie, Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida beat Yuji Hino, Makoto Oishi & Tetsuya Endo. Irie pinned Oishi after Beast Bomber. Afterwards, Hino announced his regular DDT participation will end after this week.

Match 5: In an Exploding Bat & Board Death Match, Jun Akiyama & Kotaro Suzuki beat All-Asia Tag Team Champions Atsushi Onita & Yoshitatsu (All-Japan) to win the titles. Akiyama & Suzuki become the 120th All-Asia Tag Team Champions. Akiyama pinned Yoshitatsu after a sandwich style exploding bat full swing. Next up: TBA but under normal rules-no more death matches.

Match 6: HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya beat Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima. Naya pinned Kojima after The World’s Largest Backdrop.

Main Event: Minoru Suzuki, Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai beat Chris Brookes, MAO & Antonio Honda. Akai pinned Honda after Quetzalcoatl.

The second event was held on a bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya and will be available as a PPV via Ticket Pia beginning Saturday. It should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date.

The announced paid attendance was 75, a super full house/very near sellout.

Result: In a Falls Count Anywhere match, Minoru Suzuki beat Sanshiro Takagi in 37:29. Takeshi Masada, Danshoku Dieno, Hikaru Sato, Jun Akiyama & Kazunori Mutakami all somehow got involved. Afterwards, Takagi suddenly retired but it was a false retirement as he attacked Suzuki halfway through the ceremonial 10 count.

The next event is Who’s Gonna TOP? 2023 Sunday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on WRESTE UNIVERSE will begin Saturday at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET. Live results are scheduled.