DDT wraps up their February schedule today with their monthly Tokyo tour-ending tentpole event, which also features the Finals of this year’s D GENERATIONS CUP Tournament. The winner gets a future KO-D Openweight Championship match, and Takeshi Masada is looking to make it 2 in a row as he faces Yuya Koroku in the main event. The other highlight match is the match before that, a collaboration with anime series “Bang Brave Bang Bravern” (or something like that) which could result in some wackiness as voice actor Tetsu Inada, who also happens to be (at last report) the current DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion, will be in the house…which means potential for the unexpected. And while he isn’t competing today, the ladies’ favorite newcomer, Kaisei Takechi, will also be in attendance today. And early in the card we’ve also got a match with…3/4 of those formerly deplorable Pheromones in the same ring again…yikes…
The promotion also announced that Yuki Ueno, who has been out the last couple weeks due to medical concerns, has been cleared and will return today.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. Tetsu Inada & Kaisei Takechi will be special guests on commentary. There are no title matches today and while the main event has no time limit, and considering the schedule for post-event happenings, it will probably be a standard Korakuen event with a running time of around 2 1/2 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Toru Owashi & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuni & Kazuma Sumi
Kazuki Hirata vs. Antonio Honda
Danshoku Dieno & Koju Takeda vs. Super Sasadango Machine & Yumehito Imanari
Daisuke Sasaki, KANON, MJ Paul & Illusion vs. To-y, Jun Akiyama, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Daichi Sato
Chris Brookes & Masa Takanashi vs. Shinya Aoki & Keigo Nakamura
Bravern, Yuki Ueno & MAO vs. Yukio Naya, Takao Soma & Akito
D GENERATIONS CUP Finals: Takeshi Masada vs. Yuya Koroku
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET.
UPDATE (Pre-show): At 5:30 PM PT/8:30 PM ET a last-minute change to the event was announced: Masa Takanashi is now off. Fever. Baliyan Akki is the replacement.
6 PM PT UPDATE; The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in 15-20 minutes.
6:12 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Satoshi Dairaku, Kagehiro Osano, Kaisei Takechi & Tetsu Inada. Haruo Murata will join as host later on.
The paid attendance will not be announced after the event as DDT stopped doing it at the start of the year, but today may be a legit sellout as advance tickets all but sold out.
The matches should begin in 25-30 minutes. There will be an NwA Jr. live song before the event begins.
The matches begin at 6:35 PM PT/9:35 PM ET.
Match 1: Toru Owashi & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuni & Kazuma Sumi. 30 minute time limit
Result: Toru Owashi & Yuki Ishida beat Yuni & Kazuma Sumi. Ishida pinned Sumi after a palm strike.
Match 2: Kazuki Hirata vs. Antonio Honda. 30 minute time limit
Result: Kazuki Hirata beat Antonio Honda. Ridiculous comedy match that even included Honda singing the “Frozen” song. Post-match, Hirata revealed a TBA he’s either teaming with or facing against in an upcoming match…New Japan’s Hiromu Takahashi. (Teaming together in a 6-man tag on 3/12 at the Hriata 15th Anniversary event)
Match 3: Danshoku Dieno & Koju Takeda vs. Super Sasadango Machine & Yumehito Imanari. 30 minute time limit. And…for one day and one team at least, those deplorable Pheromones are back…
Result: No Contest. Thrown out when GM Imabayashi interfered. Which meant, of course, it didn’t end well for him. Afterwards, Machine promo with a comedy slideshow presentation on one of the staff laptops that operate the video screen in the venue, which he ultimately used to make a DDT Extreme Championship challenge to Dieno for 3/20. After Imabayashi came back to this world following the end of the match, it was made official.
Quick break for ring repairs. When we come back, your new host is Haruo Murata.
Match 4: Daisuke Sasaki, KANON, MJ Paul & Illusion vs. To-y, Jun Akiyama, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Daichi Sato. 30 minute time limit
Result: Daisuke Sasaki, KANON, MJ Paul & Illusion beat To-y, Jun Akiyama, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Daichi Sato. KANON pinned Matsunaga after Sleepy Hollow. Afterwards, Hideki Okatani made a surprise return, joining Damnation T.A. as they suddenly turned on KANON and laid him out. Okatani is now in the faction but KANON is out.
Match 5: Chris Brookes & Baliyan Akki vs. Shinya Aoki & Keigo Nakamura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Chris Brookes & Baliyan Akki beat Shinya Aoki & Keigo Nakamura. Brookes pinned Nakamura after Praying Mantis Bomb. Afterwards as Brookes was about to leave GM Imabayashi hit the ring for a promo. Apparently to talk next challenger for the KO-D Openweight Championship. Brookes produced a cell phone and made a call, holding the microphone so we could hear. It was to Masa Takanashi. After the call, it was made official. Brookes vs. Takanashi on 3/20.
Short break for more ring repairs.
Match 6: Bravern (an anime character, apparently a giant robot), Yuki Ueno & MAO vs. Yukio Naya, Takao Soma & Akito. 30 minute time limit. In this case Bravern is a masked wrestler with an outfit loosely resembling the caracter. Had me thinking like Jushin Thunder Liger but with no shirt
Apparently commentary for this match is being played over the speakers in the venue.
Result: Bravern, Yuki Ueno & MAO beat Yukio Naya, Takao Soma & Akito. Bravern pinned Soma. Essentially they took a wrestling match and did it as anime-style as they could. Tetsu Inaba apparently does some voice work for this anime and he got involved a couple times.
Main Event: D GENERATIONS CUP Finals: Takeshi Masada vs. Yuya Koroku. No time limit
Result: Yuya Koroku beat Takeshi Masada by submission to win the tournament. As a result, Koroku gets a KO-D Openweight Championship shot at a later date against the Chris Brookes-Masa Takanashi winner on 3/20. (UPDATE: That match will happen on 4/6)
The event wraps up with the full 3/20 card announcement. Once again this will be a 5 Hour event. Notable add: Daisuke Sasaki vs. KANON. That got a big crowd reaction. Maybe more to come to help fill up the 5 hours.
The next event is Saturday at Tipstar Dome Chiba in Chiba, which is a free event with matches during breaks in what I believe is a day of horse racing. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
UPDATE: Hideki Okatani will return on 4/6. Match TBA.
UPDATE 2: It has also been announced that Daichi Sato, currently part of the Heat Up promotion, will be joining DDT effective 4/6.