DDT continues the KING OF DDT 2023 Tournament today with the Quarterfinals. 24 hours after narrowing the field from 16 down to 8, including some major upsets (Hideki Okatani pulled off a shocker against double champion Shunma Katsumata), it will be narrowed down to 4 after today. The Quarterfinals make up the second half of today’s event, with Okatani vs. Kazusada Higuchi as the main event. The Semifinals will be determined by random draw after the event, so it’s not necessarily going to be what the brackets online suggest. There will be 4 non-tournament matches first including a pre-show dark match.
Today’s event will be held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. There will likely be no commentary. It may also be a hard camera-only view due to venue size limitations. I was way over on my running time prediction yesterday as I guessed it would go 2 1/2 hours and it only went about 1 hour 45 minutes. Not counting the pre-show match I anticipate another 2 hour event today, so if you need a Saturday Night Live replacement due to the writers’ strike this should suffice. Note the pre-show match is scheduled to start 22 minutes before event time. Odd, I know, but it’s DDT after all.
Today’s lineup (in order):
Pre-Show Match: Yuni & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi
Main Show:
Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda
Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. Shunma Katsumata, Toui Kojima & Takeshi Masada
Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada vs. HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata
KING OF DDT Quarterfinals:
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yuki Ueno
Jun Akiyama vs. MAO
Sanshiro Takagi vs. Chris Brookes
Kazusada Higuchi vs. Hideki Okatani
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET. The Pre-Show Match is scheduled to begin at 7:38 PM PT/10:38 PM ET.
7:20 PM PT UPDATE: Stream start time has been moved up 5 minutes to 7:25 PM PT/10:25 PM PT. Updates will begin shortly.
7:25 PM PT UPDATE: Stream has launched. We should be going to the venue in about 10 minutes.
7:38 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates start now…
We are LIVE from Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, Japan. There is no commentary. Hard camera view only again.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd is still filing in as there’s 20 minutes until scheduled start time. Yesterday did roughly 235 so that suggests another crowd in the 225-250 range. (At start time it looks similar to yesterday so probably around 225 again)
The pre-show match starts a couple minutes later than planned at 7:40 PM PT.
Pre-show Match: Yuni & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi. 15 minute time limit
Result :Yuni & Yuki Ishida beat Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi. Ishida pinned Sumi after a palm strike.
Updates will resume at 8 PM PT or when main show matches begin.
The main show matches begin at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET.
Match 1: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda. 30 minute time limit A ton of pre-match comedy stuff with Iino trying to be “Sexy” again but apparently he still has to be “NOT SEXY!”
Reslut: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat Akito & Antonio Honda. Iino beat Honda with a sleeper hold. Nonstop ridiculous Pheromones comedy match. Kept everyone laughing the whole way through.
Match 2: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. Shunma Katsumata, Toui Kojima & Takeshi Masada. 30 minute time limit
Result: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON beat Shunma Katsumata, Toui Kojima & Takeshi Masada. KANON pinned Kojima after Sleepy Hollow.
Match 3: Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada vs. HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada beat HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata. Sakaguchi pinned Hirata after PK following an Endo Torture Rack Bomb during Hirata’s comedy dancing with HARASHIMA. Hilarious ending.
Match 4: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yuki Ueno. No time limit
Result: Yuki Ueno beat Kotaro Suzuki. As a result, Ueno advances to the Semifinals.
Match 5: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Jun Akiyama vs. MAO. No time limit
Result: Jun Akiyama beat MAO. As a result, Akiyama advances to the Semifinals.
Match 6: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Sanshiro Takagi vs. Chris Brookes. No time limit
Result: Chris Brookes beat Sanshiro Takagi. As a result, Brookes advances to the Semifinals. Largely hardcore comedy outside the ring.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Main Event: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Kazusada Higuchi vs. Hideki Okatani. No time limit
Result: Kazusada Higuchi beat Hideki Okatani. As a result, Higuchi advances to the Semifinals.
GM Imabayashi returns tot he ring to announce the Semifinal pairings, which are by a random draw once all 4 participants return to the ring. Colored balls will determine the matches. Higuchi draws first…red. Akiyama second…blue. Brookes third…blue. That means Ueno, who was last, got red. So the Semifinals are Higuchi vs. Ueno and Akiyama vs. Brookes. The Semifinals and Finals will be on 5/21 at Korakuen Hall.
The next event is 5/14 at TKP Garden City Chiba in Chiba for an ONLY WE/Yuji Hino 20th Anniversary Event. There will be no live broadcast.
Post-show note: The announced paid attendance was 206.
