Dramatic DDT

DDT “INTO THE FIGHT 2018”, 25/02/2018
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,220 Fans – No Vacancy

0. Under Match: Mad Paulie defeated Tomomitsu Matsunaga with the Paulie Buster (6:32).
1. Tag Rumble: Soma Takao & MAO defeated Sanshiro Takagi & Super Sasadango Machine, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata, Makoto Oishi & Kota Umeda and Yuki Ueno & Koju Takeda (6:14).
1a. Makoto Oishi & Kota Umeda eliminated Yuki Ueno & Koju Takeda by Ring Out when Oishi threw Ueno out of the ring (2:06).
1b. Sanshiro Takagi & Super Sasadango Machine eliminated Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata by Ring Out when Sasadango threw Hirata out of the ring (5:00).
1c. Sanshiro Takagi & Super Sasadango Machine eliminated Makoto Oishi & Kota Umeda when Sasadango pinned Oishi after the Golden☆Trigger (5:32).
1d. Soma Takao & MAO eliminated Sanshiro Takagi & Super Sasadango Machine when MAO pinned Takagi with the Cannonball 450 (6:14).
2. Infomercial Match – Net One Systems Co., Ltd.: Danshoku Dino defeated Saki Akai, Akito, Antonio Honda, Kouki Iwasaki and Mizuki Watase when Dino pinned Honda with the Danshoku Driver (6:58).
3. Daisuke Sasaki & Tetsuya Endo defeated Keisuke Ishii & Ken Ohka when Sasaki submitted Ohka with the Cross Facelock (8:01).
4. KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles: KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi (c) defeated Ryuichi Sekine, Ryota Nakatsu & Fuminori Abe when Sakaguchi submitted Nakatsu with a Modified Arm Triangle (8:05).
*V2 for Shuten-dōji.
5. DDT Extreme Title – Hardcore ＋α Match: Yuko Miyamoto (c) defeated Shunma Katsumata with the Moonsault (11:45).
*V2 for Yuko Miyamoto.
6. Special Single Match: Naomichi Marufuji defeated Kazusada Higuchi with the Ko-oh (13:02).
7. Special Tag Match: Shuji Ishikawa & Daisuke Sekimoto defeated Konosuke Takeshita & HARASHIMA when Ishikawa pinned Takeshita with the Splash Mountain (18:04).

With exactly one month to go until “JUDGEMENT 2018” at Sumo Hall, some big preview matches were put together for Korakuen Hall. In the main event the KO-D Openweight Champion fought alongside one of the KO-D Tag Team Champions against some of their challengers. Konosuke Takeshita, HARASHIMA, Shuji Ishikawa and Daisuke Sekimoto fought back and forth until the match went down to just Takeshita and Ishikawa inside the ring. HARASHIMA and Sekimoto still got involved to break the pins but other than that they focused on fighting each other outside. Ishikawa used the Kamigoe to great effect and hit move after move on Takeshita until the Splash Mountain kept him down for the three count.

After the match Ishikawa told Takeshita he was certainly strong but the result of their match at Sumo Hall will be the same as it was today. He then asked Daisuke Sasaki if he could sing today. He knows both he and Mad Paulie are prohibited from karaoke and dancing celebrations until Sumo Hall but he did just pin the KO-D Champion. Surely that is worth a song. Sasaki refused until Sekimoto threatened him. Sekimoto wants to sing too! Together, Ishikawa and Sekimoto sang “Tonbo” in a duet while Paulie played the air guitar while wearing sunglasses.

The other KO-D Tag Team Title preview saw Naomichi Marufuji defeat Kazusada Higuchi. Higuchi was worn down by Marufuji’s chops and different kicks while his own moves weren’t enough to keep Marufuji down for long. Marufuji said Higuchi has grown better since than the last time they fought but it takes more than youth and momentum to succeed. Marufuji is in too deep for Higuchi to beat him! Higuchi says he is learning from these matches and now understands what he is missing. From now until Sumo Hall, Higuchi & Sekimoto will think about what they need to do to win the KO-D Tag Team Titles.

There were plenty of weapons placed around ringside for the DDT Extreme Title match but two items in particular were the most important. The Hardcore ＋α Match allowed both Yuko Miyamoto and Shunma Katsumata to choose an extra weapon each. Miyamoto chose a barbed wire bat and Katsumata chose a box full of thumbtacks! The two also fought with tables, ladders, chairs and bamboo swords. Katsumata poured out the thumbtacks but he was the first to taste them when he missed a Moonsault and was then given the Fire Thunder. Katsumata kicked out and later slammed Miyamoto onto the thumbtacks with the ¡Hasta La Vista!. Miyamoto kicked out of that. Miyamoto hit another Fire Thunder and this time got the victory with the Moonsault. Backstage Miyamoto said how surprised he was by Katsumata’s performance. He was expecing an idol performance first and he still wasn’t convinced when the thumbtacks came out. It was only when Katsumata started using the weapons that Miyamoto realised he was really bringing it to him. Katsumata thinks the experience opened something new inside him. He is no longer scared of deathmatches and has a new respect for deathmatch fighters. He hopes he can use what he learned here to do more with ALL OUT.

NEO Biishiki-gun were invited out halfway through the show to reveal their third member for the Tokyo Joshi Pro Offer Match at Sumo Hall. Saki-sama & Azusa Christie came out to introduce their newest member but Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh were also there to see who it was. The mystery person came out and it was a woman in a dress hiding her face behind a teddy bear. Christie introduced her as Saki-sama’s old childhood friend. She shyly greeted the audience while still hiding behind the bear. Itoh had enough and she shouted at the woman about her appearance until the teddy was lowered. The mystery woman is Yoshiko-sama! She attacked Itoh with the bear and dropped on her with a Senton. Yamashita pulled Itoh out of the ring and had to drag her away. The teddy bear is named Charlotte by the way.

The BASARA team were in sync for most of the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles bout. At one point Ryuichi Sekine, Ryota Nakatsu & Fuminori Abe had a Shuten-dōji wrestler all trapped in submissions move at the same time. Nakatsu came close to pinning Yukio Sakaguchi with a German Suplex. But the champions retained when Sakaguchi countered the V Slider into a Triangle Kimura Hold.

Shuten-dōji were grateful in victory but now they faced a problem. They want to fight the best trio in DDT at Sumo Hall but they are the best trio so they have no opponents. Much to their surprise Yuki Ueno and Koju Takeda both entered the ring. Ueno asked if they could get the title shot at Sumo Hall. Masahiro Takanashi couldn’t believe what he was hearing from the rookie and said it was impossible. Then in a bigger surprise, Kota Umeda offered to be on their team! Sakaguchi was fine with the idea but he told Umeda he would have to leave Shuten-dōji for the time being. Umeda was willing to do that. He later explained that by being fourth man in Shuten-dōji, he was always left out of the 6-Man Tag Title matches unless one of the other three were injured. He also created a respectful bond with Ueno from their matches together since coming back from injury. By leaving Shuten-dōji to team with Ueno & Takeda he is now free to challenge for the championships at Sumo Hall.

Daisuke Sasaki blinded Keisuke Ishii with the Mist then made Ken Ohka tap to the Cross Facelock. Sasaki & Tetsuya Endo’s victory was cut short when the room went dark. The Great Homo appeared and spat Milk Mist at both of the DAMNATION wrestlers! He then pressed a metal spike into Endo’s backside and gave him the Danshoku Driver. The Great Homo made his exit by spitting Milk Mist at the audience.

For the Infomercial Match, Danshoku Dino was fitted with health sensors that displayed his hit points on the Korakuen video screen. With this technology we were able to learn what moves were effective against Dino (Antonio Honda’s strikes) and how Dino was able to recover lost hit points (doing Danshoku things to Akito). Dino was eventually brought down to 0 HP but everyone discovered that at 0 HP, Dino goes into a panic state. In this state Dino attacked everyone with Lip Locks. Dino won the match and told the sponsor that there is something about pro wrestling that cannot be measured by numbers. He then kissed the sponsor.

Congratulations to Sanshiro Takagi & Super Sasadango Machine for being the first team to copy the new Golden Lovers moveset. They attempted the Croyt’s Wrath/High Kick combo on Makoto Oishi. It kind of worked. Then they used the Golden☆Trigger, which did work. All of their progress was for nothing as MAO immediately pinned Takagi with the Cannonball 450 afterwards to win the Tag Rumble for himself and Soma Takao.

When the Tag Rumble was over, MAO said he will be entering the Falls Count Anywhere In Ryogoku tag match with Mike Bailey. He said now is the time for Street Wrestling to be taken over by the new generation. Soma Takao also announced he will be part of the match with Yuko Miyamoto as his partner. They will be representing Smile Squash. Takagi accepted the entries but then the room went dark. A video played of Michael Nakazawa announcing his entry into the match! His partner is a friend from “New York” and he is in Korakuen tonight. “Rising Sun” played over the speakers and Chinsuke Nakamura came out! Takagi attacked Nakamura mid-entrance but got the Kinsasha for his troubles. Chinsuke threw Takagi over the top rope and out of the ring, then pointed to the RyogokuMania sign that suddenly appeared on one of the balconies. One last team announced their entry later in the show. Fuminori Abe called Isami Kodaka on the phone while standing in the ring to confirm they will be part of the match.

Mad Paulie’s size and weight was too large for Tomomitsu Matsunaga to handle. Matsunaga couldn’t lift Paulie with the Back Drop or a Power Bomb. Paulie was able to stop Matsunaga with a Lou Thesz Press then pinned him with the Paulie Buster.

Gota Ihashi continues his path of redemption with a new five match series beginning in April. His first opponent is Koji Kanemoto on 1st April. Ken Ohka explained that Ihashi is wrestling to the best of his abilities but that alone is not getting results. Ihashi has to face wrestlers on the level of Kanemoto if he wants to become good enough to appease Riki Choshu.

Saki Akai revealed three new pieces of information about her “DDT COLLECTION” show at Shinjuku FACE on 15th March. First, Aja Kong will be on the card. Second, there will be a 6 Way Match between Yuko Miyamoto, Ryota Nakatsu, Naomi Yoshimura, Yukio Sakaguchi, Nobuhiro Shimatani and Yoshiko. Last but not least, NEO Biishiki-gun will face T2HiJoshi in a special trios match.

DDT is collaborating with Koei Tecmo for the upcoming horse racing video game “Winning Post 8 2018”. The game will feature two race horses named after Danshoku Dino and Konosuke Takeshita.

The DDT Video Team confirmed their own produced event “BETAMANIA” will be held in Shin-Kiba 1st RING on 23rd April. The video team is made up of Yumehito Imanari, DT-YUTA and Ryohei Fukuda. All three will participate in a match on the show.

Below is the updated card for “JUDGEMENT 2018”.

DDT “JUDGEMENT 2018 ~DDT 21ST ANNIVERSARY~”, 25/03/2018
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

0. Under Match: Kouki Iwasaki & Shinichiro Tominaga Vs Kenshin Chikano & Akira Jo
0. Tokyo Joshi Pro Offer Match: Yuka Sakazaki & Shoko Nakajima Va Rika Tatsumi & Maho Kurone
0. Under Match: Mizuki Watase, Rekka, Daiki Shimomura, Nobuhiro Shimatani & Takato Nakano Vs Mad Paulie, Hoshitango, Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Gota Ihashi & Cherry
1. Gauntlet Tag Match: LiLiCo & Makoto Oishi Vs Reika Saiki & Lady Beard Vs Akito & Shunma Katsumata Vs Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata Vs Antonio Honda & Ethan Page Vs Naomi Yoshimura & Keisuke Okuda
2. Tokyo Joshi Pro Offer Match – Special 6-Woman Tag Match: Miyu Yamashita, Maki Ito & Mizuki Vs Saki-sama, Yoshiko-sama & Azusa Christie
3. World Crazy Wrestler No. 1 Decision Battle In DDT: Joey Ryan Vs Colt Cabana
4. Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title: Super Sasadango Machine (c) Vs Jiro Kuroshio
5. KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles: KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi (c) Vs Kota Umeda, Yuki Ueno & Koji Takeda
6. Street Wrestling Using The Entire Ryogoku Building ~ Falls Count Anywhere 5 Way Tag Match: Sanshiro Takagi & Normal Person Munenori Sawa Vs Mike Bailey & MAO Vs Yuko Miyamoto & Soma Takao Vs Isami Kodaka & Fuminori Abe Vs Michael Nakazawa & Chinsuke Nakamura
7. Dramatic Dream Match: Danshoku Dino, Keisuke Ishii & Ken Ohka Vs Great Muta, Daisuke Sasaki & Tetsuya Endo
8. KO-D Tag Team Titles – Uchikomi! Presents: HARASHIMA & Naomichi Marufuji (c) Vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Kazusada Higuchi
9. KO-D Openweight Title: Konosuke Takeshita (c) Vs Shuji Ishikawa