Dramatic DDT

DDT “DDT FREE -MAY-”, 11/05/2022
Shinjuku FACE

1. Saki Akai & Soma Takao Vs Maya Yukihi & Kazuki Hirata
2. Yuki “Sexy” Iino & Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno Vs Toru Owashi & Akito
3. HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura Vs Yuji Hino & Toi Kojima
4. Special Single Match: Yuki Ueno Vs Yukio Naya
5. Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON Vs Kazusada Higuchi, Hideki Okatani & Yuki Ishida
6. Special Tag Match: Tetsuya Endo & Jun Akiyama Vs Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku
7. Road To Audience 2022! Special 6-Man Tag Match: Chris Brookes, Masahiro Takanashi & Antonio Honda Vs MAO, Asuka & Shunma Katsumata

The match order for tomorrow. But enough about that, let’s get into the meaty stuff.

“CYBERFIGHT FESTIVAL 2022”, 12/06/2022
Saitama Super Arena

0. STARTING BATTLE KICKOFF ~ DDT Provided Tag Match: Muscle Sakai & Yukio Naya Vs Soma Takao & Kazuki Hirata
0. STARTING BATTLE 2 ~ TJPW Provided 10-Woman Tag Match: Hyper Misao, Yuki Aino, Raku, Pom Harajuku & Haruna Neko Vs Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu, Moka Miyamoto, Arisu Endo & Kaya Toribami
0. STARTING BATTLE 3 ~ DDT Vs Ganbare☆Pro Battle: Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Hideki Okatani Vs Ken Ohka, Yuna Manase & Mizuki Watase
1. NOAH Vs DDT Battle: Kinya Okada & Kai Fujimura Vs Toi Kojima & Yuya Koroku
2. TJPW Provided 6-Woman Tag Match: Miyu Yamashita, Maki Itoh & Juria Nagano Vs Hikari Noa, Suzume & Yuki Arai
3. DDT Provided 8-Man Tag Match: Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno, Yuki “Sexy” Iino, Yumehito “Fantastic” Imanari & Akito Vs Sanshiro Takagi, Kendo Kashin, Shinya Aoki & Yumiko Hotta
4. Princess Of Princess Title Next Challenger Decision 4 Way Match: Rika Tatsumi Vs Mizuki Vs Yuki Kamifuku Vs Miu Watanabe
5. NOAH Provided 10-Man Tag Match: Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Shuhei Taniguchi Vs Michael Elgin, Rene Dupree, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Simon Gotch & X
6. DDT Provided 8-Man Tag Match: HARASHIMA, Naomi Yoshimura, Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takanashi Vs Yuki Ueno, Shunma Katsumata, MAO & Asuka
7. NOAH Provided 6-Man Tag Match: Rob Van Dam, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA Vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY
8. NOAH Vs DDT Battle: Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama & Kazusada Higuchi Vs Naomichi Marufuji, Atsushi Kotoge & Yoshiki Inamura
9. NOAH Vs DDT Battle ~ Special Single Match: Kenoh Vs Daisuke Sasaki
10. Princess Of Princess Title: Shoko Nakajima (c) Vs Yuka Sakazaki
11. GHC Heavyweight Title: Go Shiozaki (c) Vs Satoshi Kojima

According to Satoshi Kojima “various coincidences” led him to challenging for the GHC Heavyweight Title. He believes it is inevitable he will win the championship. Go Shiozaki is only thinking about defending the title and is not letting the grand occasion get to him.

The Princess Of Princess Title match has been decided. Shoko Nakajima nominates Yuka Sakazaki as her challenger. Her reason is because Sakazaki and Miyu Yamashita are seen as the two top wrestlers in Tokyo Joshi Pro. Nakajima thinks she has to beat both of them in championship matches in order to finally surpass them. Also Sakazaki is currently wrestling in the United States so she is going to come back a much stronger wrestler than before. If that is not enough, Nakajima remembers when she lost to Sakazaki in their previous Princess Title match together in Sumo Hall back in 2019. So there is a little bit of revenge fueling this decision. Nakajima is certain this will be the best match of her career so far and it makes her happy that it will happen at a big venue like Saitama Super Arena.

At the press conference for this show Kenoh went off the handle over NOAH having to share the spotlight with the rest of the CyberFight promotions. The one thing that pissed him off in particular is the back page advert on every issue of Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine always being reserved for DDT, TJPW and Ganbare☆Pro instead of NOAH. He decided it is now up to him to advertise NOAH and he did so by attacking Daisuke Sasaki. He gave Sasaki a Diving Double Stomp off of a table and then set his boot on fire to deliver a flaming kick to Sasaki’s head!

The idea to put Kazusada Higuchi on the same team as two BURNING wrestlers did not make him happy. He doesn’t understand why he has to team up with Tetsuya Endo & Jun Akiyama so he is going to beat NOAH his own way instead of with them. Akiyama is trying to get him on the same page because they will need to co-exist in order to beat any team with Naomichi Marufuji on it. Endo is ready to fight even though he does not have a KO-D Openweight Title defence on the card. He is excited to use his genius to overthrow Marufuji. However Marufuji is more interested in seeing how Atsushi Kotoge & Yoshiki Inamura will fare against the DDT team. Inamura wants to get revenge for his disappointing performance against Akiyama at Budokan Hall two years ago. Kotoge is carrying the weight of NOAH’s Jr. Heavyweight division by taking part in this match.

Kaito Kiyomiya is thankful for the opportunity to wrestle against a world class athlete like Rob Van Dam. He wants to show fans all over the world the power of this generation of Japanese pro wrestling.

The mystery X wrestler in the NOAH 10-Man Tag Match will be revealed on 7th June.

The winner of the TJPW 4 Way Match will get a Princess Title shot at “SUMMER SUN PRINCESS ’22” in Ota Ward Gymnasium on 9th July.

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So now that is all out of the way, let’s try and figure this out because the full card leaves me scratching my head. Sakazaki getting the Princess Title shot was correctly guessed by some online when nobody came out to challenge Nakajima at the end of TJPW’s last Korakuen Hall show. Those people figured out that Sakazaki probably would have walked down to the ring had she not suddenly got a flight to catch. Also the last time Sakazaki challenge for the Princess Title was at the previous CyberFight Festival one year ago. It’s a good matchup, probably even a great matchup but one that feels too familiar because we’re cycling through the same faces again. The addition of a 4 Way Match to pick the next contender is a fresh idea. Even if the likely result is Rika Tatsumi or Mizuki winning, either of them against Nakajima for a singles title hasn’t been done yet. Mizuki becoming the next Princess Champion would be a long time coming in my opinion and would break the Cycle Of The Three Princesses. However Tatsumi winning and becoming champ would turn it into the Cycle Of The Four Princesses. It doesn’t really solve the problem that the Princess Title will remain focused on the same people as always.

Next, there’s no KO-D Title match? Tetsuya Endo’s position on the show is for an All-Star DDT Vs NOAH trios match, which isn’t bad per se but still leaves the top of the card looking a little lackluster. For the moment his next schedule title defence is not until August. June will be focused on the King Of DDT tournament so unless he finds an opponent for July the KO-D Title is going to be iced for most of the summer. I don’t know if a plan fell through or if the timing of this show just doesn’t give them much material to work with. Was there nobody on the NOAH side they could get for an interpromotional title match who would be happy to put someone else over? Oh wait…… Yeah don’t answer that.

I will say the build for Sasaki Vs Kenoh has been great so far and is an inspired choice for a big DDT Vs NOAH singles match. Watch their angle at the press conference because it’s not just the fire spot that was good about it. Kenoh being the Frank Grimes to DDT’s Homer Simpson can carry the concept of CyberFight Festival by itself for years to come. There’s one problem though. Where on earth is the rest of Kongo? Their only other involvement in the build up to the show is a preview 6-Man Tag match against DAMNATION T.A on the 30th May NOAH event. Something weird is going on if most of the group is not at Saitama Super Arena on 12th June. Imagine if they gatecrash Osaka Jo Hall on behalf of NOAH that day instead?

Kazusada Higuchi Vs Yoshiki Inamura is also happening on the 30th May show to build up their trios match. Might be a sign there is truth to the rumours that the top people in CyberFight weren’t happy about the lack of crossover between NOAH and DDT while NOSAWA Rongai was in charge of NOAH’s match making. Their complaint was why should they spend so much time and resources building bridges with New Japan and DRAGONATE when DDT is right there beside them? I’d be certain of it if more interpromotional matches take place after CyberFight Festival concludes. There’s a whole summer of tournaments coming up for both promotions that need fresh names added to it.

The lack of major crossover between the four promotions is the last problem I have about the lineup. The self-contained matches aren’t that bad on paper, I mean my God look at that Pheromones match. That wouldn’t be out of place on any DDT supershow even with the special guests on Sanshiro Takagi’s team. The TJPW trios match and the DDT Vs NOAH rookies match should both be fun. Eruption Vs Ganpro is a match I think would turn out so much better if it was in Korakuen Hall with one team having the audience on their side (Ganpro as the home team would make the most sense in this situation). I would have loved to see more TJPW Vs Ganbare☆Joshi or even a mixed tag of some sort to get NOAH and TJPW interacting with each other. That CyberFight advert with Kenoh and Mizuki positioned next to each other looking like bratty siblings has been stuck in my head ever since I first saw it.