Today at a press conference held at AbemaTowers in Shibuya it was announced that Soma Takao will be leaving DDT to become a freelancer at the end of next month. His final match as a DDT wrestler will be held at Shinjuku FACE on 27th September. He will also be stepping down as the manager of the Dropkick Bar around the same time he leaves DDT. Takao said that after turning 38 years old recently he decided it was time for him to do something new for a career while also doing the kind of pro wrestling he wants to do.
Both Sanshiro Takagi and Akito were at the press conference and gave their opinions on Takao’s decision to leave DDT. Akito said he debuted in the same year that Takao did so it is sad for him to see someone from his generation leaving the company. He accepts his decision and understands Takao has a desire to wrestle at his own pace whereas he would not get that sense of freedom all of the time staying in DDT. The company will continue to support Takao in his final months with them and they plan to continue booking him as a freelancer on a regular basis.
Takagi spoke about how Takao came to DDT. The company was going through a crucial period in 2009 with their first Sumo Hall show coming up and they were desperately looking for a new homegrown wrestler to debut there. Takao came to them from the student wrestling scene and made his debut a short time later. Takagi admitted he asked Takao to do some unreasonable things over the years but he was able to do each one of them and grow as a wrestler. He can’t help but express a little sadness at the news and promised to do whatever he can to help him.
To begin the final period of Takao’s DDT career, he will be part of a Smile Squash reunion match being held on 30th August. Takao will team up with HARASHIMA, Yasu Urano & Akito one more time for an 8-Man Tag Match. Takao was part of several units during his time in DDT including Team Dream Futures and DAMNATION but he has many happy memories with Smile Squash. Among his favorite highlights Takao said taking part in a “Young Wrestlers” tournament with the rest of his generation, getting to be in the ring with CIMA and winning the KO-D Tag Team Titles three times. The unit he felt most attached to was Team Drift because not only did they work hard in DDT but they all got to tour All Japan together too. As for the future, Takao has things he is thinking about doing but does not want to talk about them until they come to fruition.
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It will soon be time to say goodbye to Soma Takao. Maybe. He’s not retiring and if he does continue to get booked we’ll still hear from him likely at Ganbare☆Pro and Super Japan shows. This news has me feeling a little sentimental because Takao was one of the first young wrestlers from what is now known as the Young Communication Generation that cropped up around the same time I began this website. One of the earliest pieces of trivia I kept track of was Takao’s winning streak at “WRESTLE PETER PAN” because he won his debut on the first edition in 2009 and went unbeaten there until 2022! I don’t even think DDT realised that because how much fun would it be to do a WrestleMania winning streak parody with a mid card wrestler who loses the rest of the year?
To be honest when DDT put out the tease yesterday that Takao would have some news, I was expecting a retirement. He just came back from injury and hadn’t kept it secret he was slowing down and feeling pretty banged up. Instead he still has some mileage left. I can see him teaming up with Shota some more so ROMANCE DAWN will continue. Otherwise like I said above, places like GanPro and Super Japan would be good fits for where he shows up in the near future.
Dramatic DDT 