Injury Report: Last-Minute DDT Changes For Tomorrow

DDT has just announced a last-minute change to tomorrow’s Yokohama Unlimited Vol. 3 event (in a few hours US time): Masa Takanashi is now off. Fever. He was to have teamed with Kazusada Higuchi to face Makoto Oishi & Yuji Hino in the main event. Takeshi Masada is the replacement. Masada was to have faced Kazuma Sumi in the first match. Yuya Koroku is the replacement there. Koroku was to have teamed with Antonio Honda & Rukiya vs. Danshoku Dieno & Yuki Iino in a handicap match. That’s now a tag match.

It’s not known if Takanashi will miss any time past today-he is not scheduled for any other DDT events for at least another week so he probably will not unless it’s determined to be coronavirus (his next DDT appearance is TBA but right now it’s looking to be at least 10-11 days out).

Injury Report: DDT King Is Down

Injuries have been hitting tournament winners and especially DDT hard recently. The latest one to go down is recent KING OF DDT winner Chris Brookes. Dislocated right shoulder suffered this past weekend. Out at least 3 weeks but no return date set. Changes for this weekend’s events have been made.

More as it becomes available.

DDT 5/28/23 Results

DDT continued the WHAT ARE YOU DOING 2023 Tour today with a house show in Kumamoto.

Today’s event was held at Kumamoto Castle Hall Civic Hall in Kumamoto and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a alter date. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 283, a super full house/very near sellout.

Match 1: Yuya Koroku beat Rukiya by submission.

Match 2: In a Handicap Match, Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat HARASHIMA, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata. Iino beat Hirata with Pheromon Airport. That’s just one of their VERY NSFW finishes.

Match 3: In a Hardcore Match, Chris Brookes & Sanshiro Takagi beat Hideki Okatani & Kazuma Sumi. Brookes beat Sumi with a ground octopus stretch.

Match 4: Yuki Ueno & MAO beat Tetsuya Endo & Yusuke Okada. Ueno pinned Okada after BME.

Match 5; Jun Akiyama beat Toui Kojima by ref stoppage (TKO).

Match 6: Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida beat Kota Umeda & Takeshi Masada. Ishida pinned Masada after Flame Palm.

Main Event: Yuji Hino, Makoto Oishi & Dark Side HERO! beat Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & Shogun Okamoto. Hino pinned Paul after Fuckin’ BOMB. I can’t confirm this year but pictures I saw and past history leads me to believe HERO! actually was a masked HARASHIMA.

The next event is Yokohama Unlimited Vol. 3 Saturday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.

DDT 5/27/23 Results

DDT continued the WHAT ARE YOU DOING 2023 Tour today with a visit to Hiroshima.

Today’s event was held at JMS Aster Plaza Multipurpose Studio in Hiroshima and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date (probably Tuesday). There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 190, a legit sellout.

Match 1: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat Kazuma Sumi & Rukiya. Iino beat Rukiya.

Match 2: Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida beat Sanshiro Takagi & Yusuke Okada. Higuchi pinned Okada after Brain Claw Slam.

Match 3: In a No DQ Match, MAO beat Hideki Okatani.

Match 4: Konno Kenshin (?) beat Kazuki Hirata.

Match 5: In a Lucha Libre Rules match, Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama & Yuya Koroku beat HARASHIMA, Toru Owashi & Rey Paloma by giving up. Paloma gave up because he was scared of Akiyama’s Exploder.

Match 6: Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul beat Yuki Ueno & Toui Kojima. Paul pinned Kojima after Death Valley Bomb.

Main Event: Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada beat Yuji Hino & Makoto Oishi. Brookes beat Oishi with a ground octopus stretch.

The next event is tomorrow at Kumamoto Castle Hall Civic Hall in Kumamoto. There will be no live broadcast.

DDT News: Extreme Title Match Announced, More

As they promised to do a few minutes ago at Noon JST, DDT just announced the determination match for the next DDT Extteme Champion after Shunma Katsumata had to vacate the title due to injury after his successful defense last weekend. Perhaps not surprisingly one of the participants will be MAO, Katsumata’s The37Kamiina factionmate. Surprisingly is the other-Kazuki Hirata. Match type TBA and it will be on 6/25 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. There also will be a KO-D Tag Team Championship match to determine new champions after MAO & Katsumata had to vacate the titles.

More as it becomes available.

BREAKING: Saki Akai Retiring

Shocking news from DDT: Just a day after announcing her next 10th Anniversary event, Saki Akai announced she is retiring in November. Her final event will be November 12 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.

More as it becomes available.

Notes from her press conference with Sanshiro Takagi: it’s a personal decision to retire but she also wants to focus more on modeling and her beauty salon, plus she’s managed to stay healthy and doesn’t want to overstay her welcome. Takagi says she’ll always have a place in DDT and could stay on in a non-wrestling role. He did grant one request Akai had-a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Title match as she has a deep affection for the title. So at WRESTLE PETER PAN on 7/23 it will be Champions Kazusada Higuchi, Yuki Ishida & Ryota Nakatsu vs. Akai, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani for the titles.

Among wrestlers commenting and sending well-wishes on social media is Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestler and SKE48 member Yuki Arai. Saki helped Arai win her first championship last year as they spent several months as Princess Tag Team Champions. Saki made semi-regular appearances in TJPW as both herself and her French-themed alter-ego Sakisama, a darker, sexier version of herself who teamed with independent fan favorite Mei Suruga, who became loyal maid/servant May Saint-Michel as part of Neo-Bishiki-Gun. Sometimes Yukio Sakaguchi joined them in TJPW.

Below is video of the presser in Japanese courtesy of the DDT Official YouTube channel:

DDT News: Title Vacancies

Continuing a theme across promotions recently, DDT has announced the DDT Extreme Championship and KO-D Tag Team Championships are now VACANT. Both are because Shunma Katsumata suffered an ankle injury yesterday. This means MAO loses the Tag Team Title. Determination matches to crown new champions will be held on 6/25.

DDT 5/21/23 Results

DDT wrapped up the KING OF DDT 2023 Tournament today with the Semifinals and Finals.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. You can also watch the first 4 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.

The announced paid attendance was 677.

Pre-show:
Match 1: Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno & Yumehito Imanari beat Akito, Yusuke Okada & Rukiya by ref stoppage (TKO). Iino beat Rukiya.
Match 2: Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai, Takao Soma, Yuni & Yuki Ishida beat Toru Owashi, Makoto Oishi, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi. Akai pinned Hirata after Quetzalcoatl.

Main show:
The promised announcement of a former WWE wrestler/champion appearing at WRESTLE PETER PAN was made to reveal the wrestler’s identity…Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder). He will face DDT Universal Champion Tetsuya Endo for the title on 7/23 with Steph De Lander in Cardon’a corner (not Chelsea Green, Cardona’s real-life wife. She’s back in WWE).

Match 1: KING OF DDT Semifinals: Kazusada Higuchi beat Yuki Ueno.

Match 2: KING OF DDT Semifinals: Chris Brookes beat Jun Akiyama.

Match 3: Tetsuya Endo & Kotaro Suzuki beat Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul. Endo pinned Paul after Burning Star Press. This was to have been a 6-man tag match but was changed to a tag match due to a KANON injury.

Match 4: Yuji Hino, Sanshiro Takagi, HARASHIMA & Naruki Doi beat MAO, Touki Kojima, Yuya Koroku & Takeshi Masada. Hino beat Koroku with King Kong sleeper.

Match 5: In a Piercing Deathmatch where win was by pinfall, submission or piercing your opponent’s ear 3 times, DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata beat Hideki Okatani to retain the title. V1 for Katsumata. Next up: TBA, but Katsumata hinted at wanting Atsushi Onita.

Main Event: KING OF DDT Finals: Chris Brookes beat Kazusada Higuchi by submission to win the tournament. As a result, Brookes will next face KO-D Openweight Champion Yuji Hino for the title at a date TBA.

Daisuke Sasaki summoned media backstage and tried to wait for El Desperado, who was part of the New Japan event later in the day at the venue. However, Korakuen Hall staff forced him to leave. Sasaki will face Desperado at WRESTLE PETER PAN.

The next event is Saturday at JMS Alter Plaza Multipurpose Studio in Hiroshima. There will be no live broadcast.

Injury Report: 2 DDT Group Wrestlers Out

DDT announced two wrestlers are out of action for the time being today:

First, Rika Tatsumi is off tomorrow’s Tokyo Joshi Pro event. Still dealing with the ever-vague poor physical condition. She was to have been in a 6-woman tag match. Ryo Mizunami is the replacement.

DDT also announced changes for Sunday’s event because KANON is now off. Dislocated left shoulder suffered in practice. Out indefinitely but will be “for a while”. He was to have been in a 6-man tag match, which is now just a tag match.

More as it becomes available.

DDT 5/14/23 Results

DDT returned to Chiba for another ONLY WE event today, this one a special Yuji Hino 20th Anniversary event.

Today’s event was held at TKP Garden City Chiba in Chiba and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 241, a super full house/very near sellout.

Before the event, a public signing ceremony for the next DDT Extreme Championship match between Shunma Katsumata & Hideki Okatani was held. It was announced the match would be a Piercing/Stabbing Weapons Death Match and in addition to normal methods, winning can also be by piercing the opponent’s ears with weapons 3 times.

Nick Wayne, a 17-year-old wrestler who was supposed to come to Japan earlier this year but was unable to due to visa issues, will try again to come to DDT in June & July. Wayne has already signed with All Elite Wrestling but can’t join them until he turns 18.

Match 1: Hideki Okatani beat Rukiya.

Match 2: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata. Iino pinned Hirata.

Match 3: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON beat Shunma Katsumata, Yusuke Okada & Kazuma Sumi. KANON beat Sumi with a cobra twist.

Match 4: Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada beat Hiroshi Yamato & Yuya Koroku. Brookes beat Koroku with a ground octopus stretch.

Match 5: Kazusada Higuchi, Ryota Nakatsu & Yuki Ishida beat KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Shinya Aoki, Yuki Ueno & Super Sasadango Machine to win the titles. Higuchi, Nakatsu & Ishida become the 51st KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Ishida pinned Machine after Flame Palm.

Match 6: Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi beat MAO & Toui Kojima. Oishi pinned Kojima.

Main Event: Yuji Hino 20th Anniversary Match: Yuji Hino, Jun Akiyama & Yukio Sakaguchi beat Tetsuya Endo, HARASHIMA & Yuji Okabayashi. Hino pinned HARASHIMA after Fuckin’ BOMB.

The next event is KING OF DDT 2023 FINAL!! on 5/21 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Saturday at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET. The start time may be moved up further due to 2 pre-show matches scheduled.