Dramatic DDT

DDT “INTO THE FIGHT 2020”, 23/02/2020
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,194 Fans – No Vacancy

1. 3 Way Match: Mad Paulie defeated Yukio Naya and Keigo Nakamura when Paulie pinned Nakamura with a Flying Body Scissors Drop (2:35).
2. Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai defeated Toru Owashi, Naomi Yoshimura & Mizuki Watase when Higuchi pinned Watase with the Doctor Bomb (8:20).
3. All Human Beings Are Brothers Vs We Are Family 6-Man Tag Match: Dansoku Dieno, Super Sasadango Machine & Yasu Urano Vs Shinya Aoki, Hiroshi Yamato & Kazuki Hirata ended in a No Contest when a stranger broke in (8:58).
4. 3 Way Tag Match: CIMA & Soma Takao defeated HARASHIMA & Yuki Ueno and Masahiro Takanashi & Makoto Oishi when Takao pinned Oishi with the Mad Splash (9:22).
5. 8-Man Tag Team Elimination Match – No Tag Rules: Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo, T-Hawk & El Lindaman defeated Akito, Shunma Katsumata, Yuki Iino & Chihiro Hashimoto (15:30).
5a. El Lindaman eliminated Shunma Katsumata after the AKACHOCHIN (4:41).
5b. El Lindaman and Chihiro Hashimoto eliminated each other by Double Ring Out (12:09).
5c. Daisuke Sasaki eliminated Yuki Iino with the Sasaki Hurricanrana (14:04).
5d. Akito eliminated Daisuke Sasaki with an Inside Cradle (14:10)
*Akito wins Daisuke Sasaki’s Right To Challenge At Saitama Super Arena Sword.
5e. Tetsuya Endo eliminated Akito with the Yurikamome (15:30).
*Tetsuya Endo win Akito’s Right To Challenge At Saitama Super Arena Sword.
6. DDT UNIVERSAL Title: Chris Brookes defeated Konosuke Takeshita with the Death By Roll-Up (19:26).
*Chris Brookes becomes the 1st DDT UNIVERSAL Champion!
7. KO-D Openweight Title: Masato Tanaka (c) defeated MAO with the Sliding D (21:49).
*V1 for Masato Tanaka.

Today MAO welcomed Masato Tanaka into his world of fucked up wrestling. The challenger used a lot of what he learned in Europe to keep Tanaka on his toes early in the match. A out of the ring battle had Tanaka take control with a Brainbuster on the floor. MAO got a lucky break when Tanaka accidentally knocked Yukinori Matsui out of the ring with a Lariat. MAO’s friends from the DDT Sauna Club gave him plastic cases and rubber ducks to attack the champion with. He did a Spaceman Plancha out of the ring just to smash a box over Tanaka’s head. MAO then set a table up next to the ring but Tanaka regained control with a Death Valley Driver on the ring apron. Tanaka then put MAO through the table with a Diving Body Press. MAO kept on fighting and even hit the Ultima Weapon as a shoutout to Mike Bailey for a nearfall. MAO did a backflip to avoid the Sliding D but was caught out with a Lariat. Despite his spirited attempt to get back up, Tanaka finished MAO off with the Sliding D.

After the match Tanaka said he enjoyed MAO’s weird wrestling style. He also explained that he won the match today because he hid some of the rubber ducks in his tights, guarding his waist from MAO’s attacks! It turns out Tanaka was inspired by MAO’s weirdness to try something weird himself and it worked. Tanaka wants to do more weird wrestling with MAO some day. The two shook hands and MAO left the ring while Tanaka waited to find out what he’s doing next.

None of the Right To Challenge Gauntlet holders came out so Hisaya Imabayashi decided the next KO-D Openweight Title defence will be on 20th March. He asked Tanaka if there was someone he wanted to fight. Tanaka did. He called out Konosuke Takeshita! When Tanaka entered DDT he had three wrestlers in particular that he wanted to fight. He already went through HARASHIMA and Tetsuya Endo. Now Takeshita is next, it doesn’t matter that he lost his match earlier in the show. Tanaka has won the D-Ou Grand Prix, became the KO-D Champion and just now defended it. If Takeshita thinks he is at the top of DDT then he should fight Tanaka. If he doesn’t have the confidence then he should get out of here. Takeshita accepted the challenge. He respects Tanaka as both a wrestler and a trainer at Gold’s Gym so he would like to fight him for the title.

Takeshita’s defeat that Tanaka mentioned was of course the DDT UNIVERSAL Title match. The allure of being the first champion of this brand new title pushed Takeshita and Chris Brookes to take bigger risks. Brookes laid Takeshita across two railings near the entrance and Double Stomped Takeshita through the gap. Later Takeshita hit an Avalanche Air Raid Crash onto the turnbuckle. Brookes kicked out of the Fable and went into a back and forth with his opponent. It ended with Brookes all of a sudden pinning Takeshita with Death By Roll-Up, that Figure 4 Backwards Bridge pin that’s been used more and more across the wrestling scene lately. Brookes is now the 1st DDT UNIVERSAL Champion!

Sadly Brookes did not get much time to celebrate. His victory speech was cut short by an ambush from Daisuke Sasaki! He had lost that Saitama Super Arena Sword earlier in the show and figured that he should get a title belt to replace it. So he stole the UNIVERSAL Title from Brookes! However Sasaki handed the title to a reporter backstage because he doesn’t want to be a thief. This little stunt was just a warning. Sasaki said that Brookes never got his permission to come live in Japan! When Brookes got his belt back he called Sasaki a stupid wrestler.

The Saitama Super Arena Sword did leave Sasaki’s grasp but it still belongs to a DAMNATION wrestler at the end of the day. The Business Alliance between DAMNATION and #STRONGHEARTS was victorious over ALL OUT and Chihiro Hashimoto in the Elimination Tag Match. Hashimoto was eliminated along with El Lindaman when Yuki Iino Speared the both of them off the ring apron. Sasaki lost the Sword to Akito when Akito pinned him right after Sasaki pinned Iino. But Endo and T-Hawk stood tall together and had Akito beaten. Endo made Akito submit, meaning that Endo now holds claim to the Sword and the Saitama Super Arena main event spot! That’s not all. We were told that the alliance between these two units will spread all across the world from Japan to America to Mexico to Europe. Puma King is partnering with them in Mexico for example. But there is one place where #STRONGHEARTS have not been in yet. Saitama Super Arena! They asked Imabayashi to book them for “WRESTLE PETER PAN 2020”. He eventually agreed to it after some back and forth about keeping their schedules good and proper.

The DAMNATION/#STRONGHEARTS alliance had a good day across the card with CIMA & Soma Takao also winning a 3 Way Tag Match. The crowd gave Takao “BIMA” chants, referencing his gimmick from his college club wrestling days. Some of his opponents even called him that as a joke. Takao got the last laugh by using the Mad Splash to pin Makoto Oishi. CIMA even used the Venus & Iconoclasm combo to set it up.

For the safety of the audience during the Coronavirus epidemic, all of the wrestlers in Match #3 were given special protective masks to wear while they wrestled. The masks were used specifically for this match because it would also stop Danshoku Dieno from doing the Lip Lock. The protective masks were all Super Sasadango Machine masks which led to the wrestlers getting confused and losing track over who they were supposed to fight. During the confusion, Dieno noticed that there were more people in the ring than a 3 Vs 3 Match is supposed to have. Everyone took off their mask and found out the man in the middle of the ring was a complete stranger. They asked who he was and the lights went out. When they came back on the ring was empty and the show continued like nothing happened.

Saki Akai was surprised to find out that Miranda Gordy was in attendance. She came out after the Eruption match and interrupted Akai’s promotion for their match in Nagoya tomorrow. Gordy asked for a handshake but then kicked Akai and attempted to Power Bomb her. Kazusada Higuchi and Yukio Sakaguchi came to the rescue and Gordy fled the ring, saying “See you tomorrow” to Akai as she walked away. Akai complained that Gordy does not know Japanese courtesy.

The opening 3 Way Match did not last long. Keigo Nakamura was able to get Yukio Naya out of the ring but he was quickly flattened by Mad Paulie afterward.

Shunma Katsumata had his first match back from surgery today. Imabayashi gave him a welcome back gift. It is a No DQ Match against Maku Donaruto on 3rd March!

Sakaguchi & Iino were revealed as the new producers for YaroZ. Their first message is they will accept any wrestlers who want to graduate from BOYZ because YaroZ is the more exciting place to be.

The newest DDT trainee to make his debut is Hideki Okatani. The 19 year old will have his first match on 20th March. He said he will do his best to get his first win over a senior wrestler as soon as possible.

Another fresh face to show up today is DDT’s new ring announcer Kazunori Kosuge.

A bunch of special guest names were announced for “WRESTLE PETER PAN 2020” on 7th July. Kenny Omega, Naomichi Marufuji and Meiko Satomura will all be there!

As a preview for “WRESTLE PETER PAN 2020”, a special Street Wrestling match will be held at Saitama Super Arena on 11th March.