A press conference was held by DDT today to announce that Shigehiro Irie will not be renewing his contract at the end of September. He will become a freelancer from October onward. Irie’s final match under contract will be on 30th September, however he does have dates with DDT booked for October including “RYOGOKU PETER PAN 2018” on the 21st. Irie will be teaming with Keisuke Ishii on that show to take on HARASHIMA & Yukio Sakaguchi in a special tag match involving Irie’s friend and his two favorite opponents.
The decision to go freelance was considered by Irie for a while and he made his mind up after this past Saturday’s main event in Korakuen Hall. He had formed deep bonds with the wrestlers he met on his overseas excursions and he wants to discover more various experiences as a pro wrestler while his body is still moving. He wants to take on new hard challenges and not just the ones he can find abroad. He appreciates everything he learned in DDT and also from Sanshiro Takagi who he has known all the way back to his start in Dera Nagoya Pro Wrestling. Takagi notes that pro wrestling is rising all around the world not just in Japan and North America but Europe, South America and China too. He encourages Irie to succeed and become a big name overseas as a graduate from DDT. Takagi wants to give Irie the chance to grab that opportunity knowing that Irie has pride in his DDT origins. He is welcome to continue wrestling in DDT whenever the timing allows him to.
Irie’s resignation means the future of his RENEGADES unit will not last long. Irie’s focus on wrestling overseas means that RENEGADES will be no more with him no longer around. Irie apologises to Mizuki Watase and Jason Kincaid for the decision but says that the rest time before he goes will be short. Irie wants to see Watase in particular absorb more and more as a person, not just for DDT. He looks forward to seeing how Watase will turn into a winner without him.
Irie’s past criticisms of DDT is now behind him and he is leaving with good, if sometimes painful, memories of his time here. It was fun but he wants to do more than just have fun. He explained his fascination with wrestling abroad. Irie always saw wrestling presented on a bigger scale overseas, even bigger than he can imagine. He has a strong desire to experience more and more new things so that’s why he loves going to America to wrestle. His final words to the rest of the DDT roster is to have dreams in wrestling. He wants all of them to have a dream they can believe in and then push towards it. The press conference ended with Irie and Takagi shaking with their left hands, because the left hand is close to their hearts.
Dramatic DDT 