Dramatic DDT

DDT “RYOGOKU PETER PAN 2011”, 24/07/2011
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

0. Big China Unified Nakahara Tag Team Titles: The Great Sasuke & Ricky Fuji (c) Vs Sanshiro Takagi & Munenori Sawa (Referee: Kyohei Wada)
1. Dramatic Next Generation Fight: Keisuke Ishii Vs Shigehiro Irie
2. Battle Royal – Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title: Antonio Honda (c) Vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Yuzuki Aikawa Vs Cherry Vs Riki Sensyu Vs Emi Sakura Vs Tanomusaku Toba Vs Gorgeous Matsuno Vs DJ Nira Vs Hoshitango Vs Daisuke Sasaki Vs Rion Mizuki Vs Makoto Oishi Vs Mr. #6 Vs YOSHIHIKO
3. Special Singles Match: MIKAMI Vs Poison Sawada JULIE
4. 4 Way – KO-D Tag Team Titles: HARASHIMA & HERO! (c) Vs GENTARO & Yasu Urano Vs Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa Vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Masa Takanashi
5. Summer Night Fever – 5 Vs 5 Elimination: Sanshiro Takagi, Hikaru Sato, Takao Soma, Kazuki Hirata & Akito Vs Yoshiaki Yago, Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Super Shit Machine, Kengo Ohka & Minoru Suzuki
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kota Ibushi (c) Vs Prince Devitt
7. Special Singles Match: Danshoku Dino Vs Bob Sapp
8. KO-D Openweight Title: Shuji Ishikawa (c) Vs KUDO

For the third year in a row, DDT embarks on a big adventure with the Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, aka Sumo Hall as its final destination. The original show from 2009 was a big risk for the company but became a big success due to Japanese fans being intrigued that a small wrestling promotion was holding a show in such a large and well known building. The return show one year later was just as much as a success and cemented itself as DDT’s premier event for the year. The Sumo Hall show is now one of the more feel good shows on the puroresu calendar, mixing the usual DDT brand of sports entertainment with a major title match main event and appearances by wrestlers from all over the puroresu scene, from big name stars to indy sleaze veterens.

0. Big China Unified Nakahara Tag Team Titles: The Great Sasuke & Ricky Fuji (c) Vs Sanshiro Takagi & Munenori Sawa (Referee: Kyohei Wada)

The show will unofficially begin with a Hardcore Tag Team match for the Big China Unified Nakahara Tag Team Titles. The Championship was recently introduced to Union when New Beijing wrestlers Chou-un Shiryu & Cao Zhang won the belts during a tour in China. However, calamity struck when they lost their first defence of the title in Japan against Sanshiro Takagi & Munenori Sawa of the TKG48. Takagi & Sawa were hoping to have a long and eventful title reign similar to their “Greatest Title Reign Ever (c)” from 2009 but it was not to be. The new champs would quickly lose the belts to The Great Sasuke & Ricky Fuji in a match filled with stoppages and restarts from guest referee Kyohei Wada. The rematch is booked for Sumo Hall with Mr. Wada brought back to officiate the bout. Takagi and Sasuke have fought each other before in Sumo Hall, having a crazy match during the 2009 DDT show which led to a giant brawl/party involving the DDT and Michinoku Pro rosters.

After this, the show will officially begin with the Anal Blast opening ceremony. Michael Nakazawa has won an election to take part in the ceremony, his role will be to lie down face first onto the canvas, shove dynamite up his backside and light the fuse. As opening ceremonies go, it’s not exactly Olympic Games quality but it sets the stage up nicely and tells fans that this isn’t your ordinary pro wrestling supershow.

1. Dramatic Next Generation Fight: Keisuke Ishii Vs Shigehiro Irie

The official show opener will feature a fresh rivalry between two of the fastest rising talents under the DDT umbrella. Keisuke Ishii has been heads above the rest of the pack when it comes to DDT’s younger wrestlers. When the Belt Hunter X Hunter group went on hiatus, Ishii wrestled on his own and became the main focus of DDT’s Monthly Young Communication shows. Ishii was even able to produce his own event at Shin-Kiba 1st RING back in March. However, he has been quietly building up a rivalry with the other hot prospect, this one coming from Union. Shigehiro Irie has seen his profile rise since joining Sanshiro Takagi’s TKG48 unit. Over in Union, Irie scored a shocking pinfall victory over Shuji Ishikawa during a tag match in December. He picked up good review after good review for his performances in both DDT and Union, teaming with more experienced TKG48 stablemates like Takagi, Munenori Sawa and Genichiro Tenryu. His biggest win to date took place in May when he defeated Kota Ibushi in the KING of DDT tournament. Irie also briefly held the KO-D Tag Team Titles with Sawa. Recently, Irie has been in matches with Ishii. When their Monthly Young main event from July ended in a time limit draw, the rematch was booked for Sumo Hall. This match will pit two wrestlers with bright futures ahead of them. Which one will get to be the breakout star?

2. Battle Royal – Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title: Antonio Honda (c) Vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Yuzuki Aikawa Vs Cherry Vs Riki Sensyu Vs Emi Sakura Vs Tanomusaku Toba Vs Gorgeous Matsuno Vs DJ Nira Vs Hoshitango Vs Daisuke Sasaki Vs Rion Mizuki Vs Makoto Oishi Vs Mr. #6 Vs YOSHIHIKO

DDT’s most infamous creation, one which has gained the company a lot of publicity over the years, is the Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title. A belt inspired by the WWF Hardcore Title back when it was defended 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, DDT took the same concept and ran with it further than it has any right to do so. You know the deal by now. Ladders, tables, puppies, baseball bats, curry, trucks, posters, inflatable dolls are among the large list of previous champions. The title became inactive for almost a year when the champ at the time, Masa Takanashi was out of action with a serious injury. It wasn’t until Takanashi announced his return to the ring in May when the Title began switching from person to person like a hot potato again. A 15 person Battle Royal is set with a wide range of contenders going after current champ Antonio Honda. Among the challengers are the Queen of Boing-Boing Yuzuki Aikawa, possibly brain damaged Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Riki Choshu parody Riki Sensyu, 9 year old masked Luchador Mr. #6, totally the youngest women in the match Cherry, yaoi flavored criminal catcher Rion Mizuki, rubbishly talented Gorgeous Matsuno, Ice Ribbon founder Emi Sakura, kickboxer Tanomusaku Toba, little annoying snot DJ Nira, Argentine sumo wrestler Hoshitango, former Italian 4 Horseman Daisuke Sasaki and last but certainly not least,  blow-up doll wrestling superstar YOSHIHIKO.

3. Special Singles Match: MIKAMI Vs Poison Sawada JULIE

A match celebrating two of DDT’s longest serving and most successful wrestlers. MIKAMI has been with DDT since the very first show in 1997 and still doesn’t show much signs of slowing down. Poison Sawada JULIE has been with DDT since 1999. However, has been out of action for almost a year due to an injured elbow. Will his vile snake magic be affected by his lack of ringtime or will he have recovered to full strength in time for his return?

4. 4 Way – KO-D Tag Team Titles: HARASHIMA & HERO! (c) Vs GENTARO & Yasu Urano Vs Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa Vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Masa Takanashi

A big clash between four wildly varying teams for the KO-D Tag Team Titles. Current champs HARASHIMA & HERO! have a tough time ahead as they have three pairs of wrestlers to take care of. HARASHIMA has quite a history with his alter ego. He originally debuted as HERO! in 2001 and dropped the gimmick in 2006. HERO! would sporadically appear on certain occassions but it was always HARASHIMA under the mask. That all changed in April when a 4 Way match featuring 5 wrestlers took place. HARASHIMA was left to fight off Antonio Honda, Michael Nakazawa & DJ Nira while Minoru Fujita was being kicked out of the arena for constantly showing up uninvited. When Fujita was finally gone, the match was abruptly cut short when HERO! suddenly appeared to rescue HARASHIMA from a 3-on-1 beatdown. HARASHIMA was confused to see his own alter ego in the flesh. DDT General Manager Tsurumi Amon stepped in to sort out the situation, only to mark out because HERO! is one of his favourite wrestlers. Amon’s solution was to have the two team up and go after the KO-D Tag Titles. The new team got along well but this version of HERO! was not quite right. Instead of fighting fair, HERO! began cheating to win matches.

Their first shot at the titles was against GENTARO & Yasu Urano. The GRANMA duo were the top team in DDT and were able to overcome their latest challenge but only when HARASHIMA caught his partner cheating and got him to stop right before Yasu rolled him over for a flash pin. During the next few months the belts changed hands from GENTARO & Urano to Munenori Sawa & Shigehiro Irie and then surprisingly to Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa. Omega and Nakazawa had become good friends during the year and the title win was a big achievement for both of them as a new team. However, the joy was short lived as HARASHIMA & HERO! won the Titles off them at a one match show a few days later.

Meanwhile as all of this was going on, Masa Takanashi made his return to wrestling after missing a year due to an injury to his right knee. Tsurumi Amon created a challenge for Takanashi and Nakazawa with the prize being a spot in the KO-D Tag Title Triple Threat match at Sumo Hall. When the match between the two ended in a draw, Amon decided to give both wrestlers the reward of choosing their own tag partners to compete in the title match. Nakazawa chose Kenny Omega while Takanashi surprised everyone by bringing in Big Japan powerhouse and former KO-D Openweight Champion, Daisuke Sekimoto! This match features the main event of last year’s show as HARASHIMA and Sekimoto will get the chance to face each other once again.

5. Summer Night Fever – 5 Vs 5 Elimination: Sanshiro Takagi, Hikaru Sato, Takao Soma, Kazuki Hirata & Akito Vs Yoshiaki Yago, Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Super Shit Machine, Kengo Ohka & Minoru Suzuki

The formation of a dark alliance leads to this 5 Vs 5 Elimination match. It all began with the creation of the Shit Heart ♥ Foundation in 2010. Hikaru Sato, Tomimitsu Matsunaga & Michael Nakazawa joined forces aiming to become the top heel group in DDT. That didn’t happen the way they expected it to. They were able to win the Sleazy Indy Trios Triple Crown and Sato did become the KO-D Champion during that time, but they weren’t that much of a dominating force. Fresh blood joined the group when Takao Soma turned heel shortly after winning the Young Drama Cup in November. Soma quickly took over the SHF and steered them towards more a heelish attitude. Sato wasn’t too happy with the SHF’s new direction and finally quit the group in disgust. Sato and Soma would then have a feud that lasted until February. The final match between them was a No DQ Hair Vs Hair match, which Soma won thanks to the appearance of the SHF’s newest member, the Super Shit Machine. Nakazawa would then be kicked out of the group, leaving Soma, Matsunaga & Machine as the only members. Soma would go on to more success by winning one of the “Anytime & Anywhere” contracts during the KO-D Title Challenge at DDT’s 14th Anniversary. However, his plan to have his title shot immediatly after Shuji Ishikawa’s win over GENTARO was not enough to steal the title. Matsunaga & Machine were pissed off at Soma failing when he had a golden opportunity to become champion, so they held a mutiny and got rid of their leader. With the Shit Heart ♥ Foundation down to just two members, they began looking elsewhere for allies.

Meanwhile over in Union, Sanshiro Takagi decided to switch brands and join DDT’s sub-promotion. His goal was to help Union in providing a more active schedule and also to use Union as the testing ground for his latest project. Taking inspiration from the AKB48 pop group, Takagi formed a super unit that combied stars from around the puro scene with his proteges and other underrated talent. The group was called the TKG48 and its 48 members included Genichiro Tenryu, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Atsushi Aoki, Munenori Sawa, Shigehiro Irie, TAKA Michinoku, Ryuji Ito and Yuzuki Aikawa. Things were looking good for Takagi as the TKG48 were winning its matches against the Union Sekigun. Then Yoshiaki Yago showed up to spoil the fun. Yago and Takagi have never really seen eye to eye with each other and Yago saw the TKG48 as a new reason to feud with Takagi again. Yago drafted in Madoka and Kengo Mashimo (known as Kengo Ohka in Union because he looks like Ken Ohka, if Ken was fit and talented) and the trio went to battle against both the TKG48 and the Union Sekigun. As this was going on Yago became smitten with Union boss Naomi Susan. He claimed that the unit were also Naomi’s bodyguards and would now be called the Susan Guard.

The SHF and the Susan Guard announced in June that they joined forces and would now be called the Susan Shit Heart Superstars. They would make their presence felt in by attacking their enemies Sanshiro Takagi, Hikaru Sato and Takao Soma throughout the 3rd July show in Shin-Kiba. Sato and Soma would finally put there differences aside when Sato was willing to forgive Soma for his actions while leading the SHF. The attack by The Superstars just gave them more reason to team up and go after a common enemy. Takagi would join them but would be without his TKG48 comrades. Instead Sato brought in two of DDT’s rookies, Kazuki Hirata and Akito to team with them. Sato’s self-imposed trial of wrestling at the bottom of the card after losing the KO-D Title led to him regularly teaming with and facing against Hirata and Akito. He would become impressed by their performances to the point where he would give them the chance of joining his squad for Sumo Hall.

So everything was ready for the Elimination match. That was until The Superstars had one last trick up their sleeve. Madoka would not be wrestling at the show, so they had to go looking for a replacement. They found just the guy, someone who doesn’t take crap from anyone and someone who Hikaru Sato knows real well… Minoru Suzuki!

6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kota Ibushi (c) Vs Prince Devitt

The “Golden Star” and “Independent Genius” is living through his best year to date as a pro wrestler. But the last 12 months have been a rollercoaster for Kota Ibushi. He had to miss the dream match against Naomichi Marufuji on last year’s show after dislocating his shoulder in the Best Of The Super Jr. final over at New Japan Pro Wrestling. The wrestler he lost the final to was none other than Irish Jr. Heavyweight sensation Prince Devitt. The two would cross paths several more times with the Golden Lovers of Ibushi & Kenny Omega feuding with the Apollo 55 duo of Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi over the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles. The Golden Lovers won the belts and were even able to defend them twice in DDT before losing them back to Apollo 55. Ibushi would also challenge Devitt to an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title match at the annual Tokyo Dome in January but suffered defeat after an Avalanche Bloody Sunday. When Apollo 55 won back the IWGP Jr. Tag belts, that seemed to be the end of the rivalry for the time being. The rivaly returned several months later with the 2011 Best Of The Super Jr. tournament. Taguchi would beat Ibushi and Devitt would defeat Omega in their group matches. But in the grand final, Ibushi would finally win the tournament by defeating Taguchi in a highly emotional match. Feeling on top of the world, Ibushi wasted no time and got his IWGP Jr. Title match against Devitt just one week later. This time Ibushi would get the better of Devitt and claim his and arguably DDT’s biggest achievement to date.

Prince Devitt will get his rematch at Sumo Hall as Ibushi’s first challenger. Their previous bouts have been more like sprints than drawn-out ‘epic’ battles. Devitt knows that great matches don’t always have to be over 15 minutes long, but this is the match most fans are looking forward to on this show. Ibushi doesn’t have any horrible injuries to worry about and he would definitly want to make up for missing last year’s show. Plus he wouldn’t want to lose the title just after winning it. This match should be one to remember.

7. Special Singles Match: Danshoku Dino Vs Bob Sapp

The big match for the big show…for better or worse. The first major announcement for this year’s Sumo Hall show was the appearance of “The Beast” Bob Sapp. Hard times have fallen on the poor Sapp. His stardom in Japan has dwindled away and his pro fighting career has become such a dud that he regularly had to beg in the street of Tokyo, pleading that he would “fight for money”. While one person was there to help him, he soon became too busy slapping masked men disguised as charity events for Sapp to rely on. Luckily, he found a poster for this show and realised he could get another chance in the ring. So Sapp travelled over to DDT HQ to plead his case to Sanshiro Takagi & Ken Ohka. They were bewildered by Sapp’s sudden appearance but happy to offer him the chance to redeem himself. Then Ohka accidentaly dumped Sapp’s begging bucket over his head. Sapp became so angry that he threatened that he would destroy DDT on 24th July.

It would take quite a man to stand up to “The Beast”. In fact, it would take a man so manly beyond your wildest expectations to stand up and defend DDT against “The Beast”. Cue Danshoku Dino. After winning the opportunity to choose an opponent for Sumo Hall, Dino nominated to take on Sapp and defend DDT’s honour. Sapp wasn’t so convinced and set forth wave upon wave of Assassins for Dino to fight. If Dino could defeat them all, Sapp would treat him as worthy enough to fight. Onward came the Assassins: Jonathan Gresham, Ryan Genesis, Choun-Shiryu, Dragon Chan, Ryoma Lee, Gaylon Summers and Sexxxy Eddy. All eventually fell to Dino. But everytime Dino was about to learn some valuable information about Sapp from an Assassin, the Assassin would be shot in the neck with a poison dart by an unknown sniper. Dino and Sapp would finally meet when Dino wiped out the Assassins. Sapp still wouldn’t take Dino seriously, thinking that the gay man was only a weakling. It was only when Sapp got to see first hand what Dino’s strengths are that he began to show fear. So Sapp’s camp demanded that they decide what the rules of the match should be. A compromise was made, the match would become a 30 round match with the rules switching between “Bob Rules” and “Gay Rules” every round. “Bob Rules” would be similar to MMA with Dino’s more perverted moves being made illegal. “Gay Rules” would be just like normal pro wrestling just with said perverted moves being legal and even encouraged.

Everything is now set. The long awaited battle between Danshoku Dino and Bob Sapp will now begin… Unless Sapp pulls out because he is unhappy about how much he will be paid for showing up. But that’s not going to happen, right?

Right?

8. KO-D Openweight Title: Shuji Ishikawa (c) Vs KUDO

The main event for the coveted KO-D Openweight Title sees Shuji Ishikawa of Union taking on KUDO from DDT. Ishikawa has been the ace of the Union brand since 2007 and has been a 3 time KO-D Champion, the first of which was when he wrestled as the masked Hawaiian God Of War, Koo. Ishikawa and KUDO were the last two wrestlers in the KO-D Openweight Title Challenge Right Fight +alpha Anytime and Anywhere Battle Royal that took place in March. Ishikawa got the better of KUDO on that occassion and he went on the win the KO-D Title from Dick Togo two months later. He has so far been able to defeat GENTARO and Takao Soma in back-to-back title defences.

KUDO has wrestling in DDT since 2001 but he has never held the KO-D Title. He earned this valuable title shot by winning the KING Of DDT tournament that took place in May, defeating Yasu Urano, Hikaru Sato, Kenny Omega along the way and then beating HARASHIMA in the final. After that, the DDT roster gave him an initiation they gave HARASHIMA the year before. They all lined up and hit KUDO with one of their trademark moves, the idea being that they were all transferring their energy into him and he will represent the entire DDT promotion in the match. This time however, Ishikawa interfered and stopped the initiation, delivering a crushing Splash Mounatin to the challenger before telling everyone KUDO has no hope of winning the title back. Will KUDO be able to prove Ishikawa wrong and finally become the top star in DDT or will Ishikawa keep the title and continue Union’s dominance over DDT?