DDT’s annual popularity contest returns for another year. The Dramatic General Election is used to determine November’s big show in Korakuen Hall from the main event championship match right down to the pre-show matches. The top 20 voted wrestlers will qualify for the main card of “DDT SPECIAL 2018” on 25th November. Those who finish between 21st to 24th will qualify for the dark match and act as a substitute for anyone in the top 20 who cannot wrestle that day for whatever reason, usually an injury. The winner of the election will get a million yen in prize money and also a KO-D Openweight Title shot on 25/11. If the KO-D Champion wins the election then they get to nominate their challenger for that date. The runner-up gets a championship match of their choice out of the KO-D Tag Team Titles, DDT Extreme Title, KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles, KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Titles (yes they are still active believe it or not) and Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title.
Votes can be cast online for the first time this year. Voting tickets with individual serial numbers will be handed out in various ways and a website will soon be launched for fans to cast their vote. Everybody with either a Gold or Platinum membership for the DDT Fan Club/DDT UNIVERSE will receive an online voting ticket. Other ways to get tickets include buying merchandise at events, buying merch from their online store and buying food and drink at DDT’s restaurants. You will get a ticket for every 3,000 yen spent in a single transaction. The voting period begins on 4th September and ends on 28th October. The results will be announced at a Shin-Kiba 1st RING event on 30th October.
The list of entries for this year are Danshoku Dieno, HARASHIMA, Tetsuya Endo, Daisuke Sasaki, Masahiro Takanashi, Soma Takao, Konosuke Takeshita, Akito, Saki Akai, Makoto Oishi, KUDO, Shunma Katsumata, Keisuke Ishii, Toru Owashi, MAO, Antonio Honda, Yukio Sakaguchi, Kazuki Hirata, Kazusada Higuchi, Super Sasadango Machine, Yuki Ueno, Yuni, Yoshihiko, Gota Ihashi, Nobuhiro Shimatani, Mad Paulie, Hoshitango, Gorgeous Matsuno, Kota Umeda, Mizuki Watase, Yuki Iino, Keisuke Okuda, Tanomusaku Toba, Yumehito Imanari, Maki Ito, Jun Kasai and Michael Nakazawa.
Sanshiro Takagi and Shigehiro Irie have both declined to enter the election this year.
There is also an election for all of the units in DDT with a self-produced show at a venue to be determined later this year as the prize. The units being entered are:
DAMNATION: Daisuke Sasaki, Shuji Ishikawa, Soma Takao, Tetsuya Endo, Mad Paulie & Nobuhiro Shimatani
ALL OUT: Konosuke Takeshita, Akito, Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Iino
Shuten-dōji: KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi
DISASTER BOX: HARASHIMA, Toru Owashi & Yuki Ueno (possibly Kazuki Hirata too)
The Compliance: Danshoku Dieno, Makoto Oishi, Super Sasadango Machine, Antonio Honda & Kazusada Higuchi
Booing 2018: Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Michael Nakazawa (plus a tease of a mystery member)
MOONLIGHT EXPRESS: Mike Bailey & MAO
Dramatic DDT 