This week All Elite Wrestling announced they will be bringing Yuka Sakazaki to Las Vegas for their “DOUBLE OR NOTHING” show on 25th May. Tokyo Joshi Pro have a show at Kitazawa Town Hall taking place the same day and confirmed that Sakazaki will not be there. Both DDT Universe and their official Youtube channel have uploaded a bunch of Sakazaki matches for everyone to watch, which I recommend you do if you haven’t seen much of her yet. It’s a good choice as she is essentially Tokyo Joshi’s number two wrestler after Miyu Yamashita. What Sakazaki has over Yamashita in this instance is a bit more flexibility with the AEW women’s roster announced so far. For example I think AEW could team Sakazaki with Kylie Rae for a match against Aja Kong and Nyla Rose. Based onn personality alone the pairing of Sakazaki and Rae would mesh well although the combination might be so sugary sweet it would give everybody sitting in the first three rows diabetes.
Here’s where we can have fun making speculations over the news. A couple of days before this announcement, Sanshiro Takagi recorded a Q&A session on DDT Universe. One of the questions asked about DDT working with AEW and (going by @ddtpro_eng’s translation) Takagi flat out said “yup”. Gossip online about the two groups forming an alliance has been around since the days of AEW’s launch too. Meanwhile this is going around while talk of WWE entering the Japan market and teaming up with a Japanese company for a hypothetical NXT Japan is heating up. Add DDT’s new relationship with Fight Club: PRO and their association with WWN for Wrestlemania week this year along with companies all around the world deciding who to buddy up with and we can make a relationship chart that is nigh on impossible to comprehend at a time when lines are supposedly being drawn for a new wrestling war that is about to begin.
Wrestlemania week this year really feels like it’s going to be the climactic final chapter in this current era of the wrestling industry. Between this being the last Wrestlemania before WWE’s gigantic TV deal kicks in, the New Japan & ROH alliance hitting its peak in Madison Square Garden, the shadow of AEW looming over everyone and a ton of promotions from North America, Europe AND Japan charging head first into the state of New York praying to hit a jackpot for their efforts the aftermath is going to be crazy even if nothing about our own wrestling following habits change.
Oh right, this is meant to be a DDT blog. Let’s go back to talking about them again then.
TOKYO JOSHI PRO “TOKYO JOSHI 2019 WINTER ~HIGH SCORE~”, 10/02/2019
Tokyo Seijo Hall
1. Pom Harajuku Vs YUMI
2. Shoko Nakajima & Natsumi Maki Vs Yuki Kamifuku & Mina Shirakawa
3. Yuka Sakazaki, Haruna Neko & Himawari Unagi Vs Maki Ito, Yuna Manase & Pinano Pipipipi
4. Mizuki & Raku Vs Reika Saiki & Marika Kobashi
5. Hyper Misao Vs Yuki Aino
6. Nodoka Tenma Vs Miu Watanabe
7. Miyu Yamashita Vs Hikari Noa
A contract signing ceremony for the two championship matches scheduled for 23rd February will take place before this show.
DDT “KEISUKE OKUDA TRIUMPH! DRAMATIC ISEMAIRI! 2019”, 10/02/2019
Mie Boat Race Tsu Dome
1. Soma Takao Vs Mizuki Watase
2. Akito Vs Akira Jo
3. Sanshiro Takagi & Saki Akai Vs Makoto Oishi & Kazusada Higuchi
4. MAO & Yuki Ueno Vs Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi
5. DISASTER BOX Vs Gon Gift!: HARASHIMA & Toru Owashi Vs Jason Kincaid & Antonio Honda
6. DAMNATION Vs ALL OUT!: Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo & Mad Paulie Vs Konosuke Takeshita, Yuki Iino & Space Monkey
7. Keisuke Okuda Local Triumph! Tsu Specialty Special Tag Match: Keisuke Okuda & Naomi Kingdom Vs Kazusada Higuchi & Kota Umeda
Keisuke Okuda is back home and doesn’t have to team with Makoto Oishi. It will be a good day for him.
BASARA “BASARA 88 ~LIKE A ROSE~”, 10/02/2019
Tokyo Seijo Hall
1. Takumi Tsukamoto, Yasu Urano & Jun Masaoka Vs Fuminori Abe, Takato Nakano & Masato Kamino
2. Ryuichi Sekine Vs Yusuke Kubo
3. Sparky Vs Sento Minzoku!: Ryota Nakatsu & Akiyori Takizawa Vs Isami Kodaka & Daiki Shimomura
4. Sakigake!! Iron Family Vs Best Stretchmen Full Scale Single Match: SAGAT Vs Stretchman Man
5. Sakigake!! Iron Family Vs Best Stretchmen Full Scale Single Match: FUMA Vs Best Stretchman Amazon
6. Sakigake!! Iron Family Vs Best Stretchmen Full Scale Single Match: Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi Vs Best Stretchman V3
The fate of the Best Stretch shop is so important that the second half of the show is entirely dedicated to it!
DDT “JUDGEMENT 2019 ~DDT 22ND ANNIVERSARY~”, 17/02/2019
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
0. Pro Wrestling BASARA Offer Match: Ryuichi Sekine & Daiki Shimomura Vs Takato Nakano & Masato Kamino
0. Tokyo Joshi Pro Offer Match: Yuna Manase, Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino Vs Natsumi Maki, Hikari Noa & Miu Watanabe
1. Shunma Katsumata Return Match: Shunma Katsumata, Yuki Ueno & Space Monkey Vs Antonio Honda, Jason Kincaid & Naomi Yoshimura
2. Special Single Match: Akito Vs T-Hawk
3. Taiho Koki’s Grandson Yukio Naya Ryogoku Kokugikan First Participation!: Go Shiozaki, Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya Vs Daisuke Sekimoto, Toru Owashi & Yuki Iino
4. Danshoku Dieno Produce Yuru-chara “Pokotan” Debut Match: Danshoku Dieno, Pokotan & KUDO Vs Keisuke Ishii, Kota Umeda & Mizuki Watase
5. Special Hardcore 6-Person Tag Match: Sanshiro Takagi, Chigusa Nagayo & Ryuji Ito Vs Soma Takao, Mad Paulie & Takumi Iroha
6. Dramatic Dream Match: Naomichi Marufuji Vs Tetsuya Endo
7. Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title – Time Difference Battle Royal: Asuka (c) Vs Super Sasadango Machine Vs Makoto Oishi Vs Keisuke Okuda Vs Saki Akai Vs Kazuki Hirata Vs Tomomitsu Matsunaga Vs Gorgeous Matsuno Vs Hoshitango Vs Gota Ihashi Vs Yuni Vs Yasu Urano Vs El Lindaman Vs Scorpio X2 Vs Yuka Sakazaki Vs Mina Shirakawa Vs Chinsuke Nakamura Vs Maku Donaruto
8. KO-D Tag Team Titles – 3 Way Match: Mike Bailey & MAO (c) Vs Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi Vs CIMA & Seiki Yoshioka
9. DDT Extreme Title – Souken Holdings Presents – Our Pride Rules: Shinya Aoki (c) Vs HARASHIMA
10. KO-D Openweight Title – RAGE Presents: Daisuke Sasaki (c) Vs Konosuke Takeshita
CyberAgent’s major esports festival RAGE is sponsoring the main event and awarding 2 million yen to the winner.
I’ll have a preview for the show written a few days before the show. Feels like it has snuck up on me so fast.
GANBARE☆WRESTLING “DON’T STOP ME NOW 2019”, 21/02/2019
Shin-Kiba 1st RING
1. Kicking The Soul: Hiroshi Yamato & Nobuhiko Tsurumaki Vs Kouki Iwasaki & Shuhei Washida
2. Ganpro Special Dream Match!: Chikara Vs Naoshi Sano
3. There Are Evil Spaces In the Middle Of Ganjo!: Moeka Haruhi Vs Andras Miyagi
4. Ganbare☆Wrestling Vs Sento Minzoku ~Fate Reunion! Ohka & Isami!~: Ken Ohka & Shuichiro Katsumura Vs Isami Kodaka & Ryuichi Sekine
5. Ganbare☆Wrestling Vs Sento Minzoku ~Fort Of Ganpro~: Keisuke Ishii Vs Minoru Fujita
6. Are You In A Wrestling Textbook? Yumehito Imanari’s Believe S-Road: Yumehito Imanari Vs Shinjiro Otani
Andras Miyagi (formerly known as Cassandra Miyagi) is coming back to Ganbare☆Wrestling now that she is a freelancer. She previously had a match here back in February 2017.
Dramatic DDT 