DDT “DANSHOKU DIENO 20TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK PUBLICATION COMMEMORATION”, 21/12/2022
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
537 Fans
0. Dark Match – Karma Handicap Match: Akito, Toru Owashi, Kazuki Hirata, Antonio Honda & Hiroshi Yamato defeated Sanshiro Takagi when Hirata pinned Takagi with the Miracle One Shot Cradle (5:43).
*Sanshiro Takagi must purchase 47 copies of “The Eccentric’s Ambition: What I Learnt From Fighting The Invisible Man On How To Increase My Value” with his own money.
1. DDT Wrestlers With Short Career Experience Are Called Young Drama: Anarko Montaña & Hideki Okatani defeated Takeshi Masada & Kazuma Sumi when Montaña pinned Sumi with the Shooting Star Press (9:27).
2. Untitled Staggered Entrance Rumble: Saki Akai defeated Makoto Oishi & Yusuke Okada by Double Ring Out (8:09).
Order Of Elimination: Yukio Sakaguchi & Yasu Urano, HARASHIMA, Koju “Shining Ball” Takeda, Yuya Koroku, Yusuke Okada, Makoto Oishi & Yusuke Okada (8:09).
*Saki Akai is declared the 2022 King Of Pantyhose.
3. In The Present 6-Man Tag Match: Chris Brookes, Masahiro Takanashi & Ken Ohka defeated Yuki Ueno, MAO & Toi Kojima when Takanashi pinned MAO after the Hair Of The Dog (12:20).
4. Novelty Single Match: Naruki Doi defeated Shunma Katsumata with the Bakatare Sliding Kick (11:48).
5. DDT Tradition 6-Man Tag Match: Tesuya Endo, Jun Akiyama & DJ Nira defeated Kazusada Higuchi, Yuki Ishida & Thanomsak Toba whne Endo pinned Ishida with the Swivel Torture Rack Bomb (11:12).
6. Selfishly For The 2nd Time In 20 Years, A Single Match That Danshoku Dieno Just Wants To See: Yuki “Sexy” Iino defeated Yumehito “Fantastic” Imanari with the Badonkadonk (16:43).
7. Selfishly For The 1st Time In 20 Years, Danshoku Dieno’s Self-Satisfaction Match: Haku defeated Danshoku Dieno and Muscle Sakai when Haku pinned both Dieno and Sakai (16:08).
In January 2002 a pro wrestler by the name of Danshoku Dieno emerged from the college club scene and took the pro wrestling world by storm. Quickly finding a home in DDT, Dieno shocked audiences with his gimmick as a hyper gay wrestler but gradually built up a rapport with fans alongside a long list of in-ring achievements as the years went by. Now 20 years into his career he has written a book about how he sees the world through the eyes of pro wrestling. The book is titled “The Eccentric’s Ambition: What I Learnt From Fighting The Invisible Man On How To Increase My Value”. Today’s show at Korakuen Hall was the launch event for his book and everyone who attended received a copy as part of their ticket purchase (the ticket prices were adjusted for this reason, he wasn’t giving out the books for free).
Dieno was given full match making power for the show. So he came up with a card of matches that he would personally enjoy as a fan. He also wanted to have a match against one of his closest friends in the business Muscle Sakai in the main event. Sakai took the time before the match to hold a PowerPoint presentation explaining the line that seperates himself from Super Sasadango Machine. He made the speech because last week he received a message from a fan who told him he is more famous for his talking than his wrestling. Sakai also revealed he’s been reading other self-help books to figure out how to beat Dieno today.
In the match itself Sakai focused on using the Headlock. One of the books had a piece of advice saying you should always train the skills you already have. Dieno’s book also explains how low difficulty wrestling moves can determine who will win the match. The Headlock is always the first move a wrestler is taught and Sakai worked out if he uses it long enough he could destroy Dieno’s skull and win. They spent so much of the match doing Headlocks that they started doing other stuff to pass the time, like listen to music or eat chocolate. It got so intense they ended up creating visions of their thoughts for the audience to see. Together they reminisced about MUSCLE, Sakai’s original retirement match and how this was the last time they were wrestling each other in front of Hisaya Imabayashi.
Imabayashi entered the ring to break up the Headlock fest and was given a Brainbuster from Dieno for his troubles. The match heated up with Sakai kicking out of the Homo Ye at one and Dieno being given the Vertical Drop Lehmann Shock. Dieno was sure to be beaten until he had a vision of his pet dog Haku flash across the screen. Haku is a rescue dog that Dieno adopted in September and has been the love of his life ever since. Along with the vision came a message that read “Don’t come here and do normal wrestling, do what only you can do.” With a flash of inspiration, Dieno kicked out. Haku then entered the ring and bit Sakai in the crotch. Dieno thought his pet came to rescue him but Haku then attacked him too and jumped on top of both fallen wrestlers. Yukinori Matsui decided to make the three count and declared Haku the winner of the match!
Imabayashi was confused by what he just watched. He asked the fans if that was a good main event and they applauded. Sakai explained this was the last time they could wrestle their match in front of him because Imabayashi is leaving DDT at the end of the year. Imabayashi had to correct them. It’s true he is quitting the company soon in order to spend more time with his family in Fukuoka but he recently agreed to remain the DDT GM as a subcontractor. With this deal he will only be gone from DDT once a month. There wasn’t much time left in the show to explain so Dieno was given the final moments to give his speech and thank everyone for coming. He especially singled out the older generation of DDT wrestlers who were there with the company before him.
The other big idea for a match Dieno had was his two contemporaries from Pheromones facing off against each other. All of the lewd stuff surrounding Pheromones was shoved into this match. Yuki Iino did his sexy poses while Yumehito Imanari tried to take over one of the Samurai TV cameras to film it. There actually was wrestling going on in between the antics, although Dieno told Iino through a video message to bring out the “Sexy” that nobody has seen yet. Iino did just that and finished the match on top. Imanari said there was a lot of conflict in Iino’s heart but he could see the “Sexy” pride inside. Iino just said “Pheromones good, forever.”
There was plenty of nonsense all over the show. A 6-Man Tag had Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida both wrestle in mawashi and fight using sumo techniques. Thanomsak Toba did not join in, preferring to stick to the kickboxing he knows. The match was briefly interrupted by the announcement that one of Jun Akiyama’s friends was here to celebrate his 30th anniversary. Antonio Honda entered the ring in a diaper and Toru Owashi put a home made Ultimo Dragon mask over his head. Meanwhile it took DJ Nira several attempts to pull off a successful double team move with Akiyama. When it finally worked, Tetsuya Endo took over and got the win for his team. Honda then returned in his diaper with several other wrestlers wearing the same costume to dance around Akiyama. None of the wrestlers in the match knew what was going on except for Toba. He explained to the others backstage that this kind of match used to happen all the time in DDT back when he was around. Now it only happens once every ten years.
Naruki Doi beat Shunma Katsumata in a first time singles meeting. Katsumata hit a dive to the outside onto Doi and a bunch of other wrestlers seconding at ringside. Doi almost won with the Avalanche Doi 555 but got the victory with the Bakatare Sliding Kick afterwards. Katsumata asked for a handshake at ringside and Doi gave him the NeppoWER pose instead. He’d like to have another match with him either as partners or opponents. Doi also promised to read Dieno’s new book instead of sleeping tonight.
6-Man Tag action saw CDK & Ken Ohka get the better of The 37KAMIINA. Ohka kept taunting Toi Kojima by saying his moves didn’t hurt at all after every bump. Everyone ended up forming a group pyramid submission with Ohka posing on top until Yuki Ueno made it all collapse with a Dropkick. Ohka returned with the Spear Of Fire to both MAO & Kojima before taking out Ueno with a Death Valley Bomb. That left CDK to pin MAO with the Hair Of The Dog to win the match. Backstage MAO complainied about both Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takanashi pinning him at the same time. That is supposed to be illegal in tag team matches. However MAO has an open mind and accepts that double pinfalls are fair play in ChocoPro, which is where CDK learned it from. He now wants the vacant KO-D Tag Team Titles match between CDK and ShunMao on 3rd January to allow double pinfalls.
The Rumble match had an unannounced rule where every competitor had to wrestle wearing pantyhose over their head, making them unwillingly pull funny faces. HARASHIMA and Koju Takeda had a pose off. Yuya Koroku didn’t want to wear it and got booed when he pulled his off. The eliminations caught some of the wrestlers off guard, like when Yukio Sakaguchi and Yasu Urano eliminated each other right when Sakaguchi entered the match. the match came down to Makoto Oishi and Yusuke Okada fighting on the apron. Suddenly the final wrestler made their entrance. It was Saki Akai! She walked out in full catwalk mode and the sight of her wearing pantyhose over her face scared the other wrestlers off the apron and out of the ring. She ended up winning the match without touching anybody. It was then revealed the match was to crown the King Of Pantyhose 2022! Akai credited the victory on reading Dieno’s book because it gave her courage.
The opening match gave the spotlight to DDT’s younger wrestlers along with the guest Anarko Montaña. The visitor hit some high risk moves including a Moonsault out of the ring. Takeshi Masada & Kazuma Sumi had their moments and could smell victory at times but Hideki Okatani was always there to stop it from happening. Instead Montaña planted Sumi with the Michinoku Driver II and pinned him with the Shooting Star Press.
An extra rule was added to the 5 Vs 1 dark match. Before it began, Keigo Nakamura wheeled out a cart full of copies of Dieno’s book. The rule was every count that happens in the match will be added up and whatever the total is, the losing side will have to buy that many copies of the book. The number ended up at 47 and Sanshiro Takagi was the loser after he was pinned by Kazuki Hirata. As a result, Takagi was forced to purchase 47 copies of the book with his own money. Even though Akito is currently Dieno’s enemy, he admitted he was happy to be a part of today’s show.
Dramatic DDT 