Dramatic DDT

DDT “INTO THE FIGHT 2019”, 21/03/2019
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,433 Fans – Super No Vacancy Full House

0. Under Match: Shunma Katsumata defeated Mizuki Watase with a Casadora Foot Stomp (5:42).
1. Bull James, Kota Umeda & Naomi Yoshimura defeated Tetsuya Endo, Mad Paulie & Nobuhiro Shimatani when James pinned Shimatani with the Doink Drop (14:49).
2. A Miraculous Ending! Goodbye Michael! Till We Meet Again! – Michael Nakazawa Send-Off Match: Sanshiro Takagi, Masahiro Takanashi, Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Keisuke Okuda & Hiroshi Yamato defeated Michael Nakazawa when Yamato pinned Nakazawa with the Sliding X (0:18).
2a. Rematch: Sanshiro Takagi, Masahiro Takanashi, Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Keisuke Okuda & Hiroshi Yamato defeated Michael Nakazawa when Okuda submitted Nakazawa with the Cross Armbreaker (0:25).
2b. Another Match: Michael Nakazawa, Masahiro Takanashi & Tomomitsu Matsunaga defeated Sanshiro Takagi, Keisuke Okuda & Hiroshi Yamato when Nakazawa pinned Takagi with the Michael Slam (8:50).
3. The Hirata Dance Is The Best! No, It’s The Pro Wrestling Exercise! Special 6-Man Tag Match: Makoto Oishi, Antonio Honda & Asuka defeated Toru Owashi, Kazuki Hirata & Saki Akai (w/ Furitsuke Kamen) when Oishi pinned Hirata with a Cradle (8:27).
4. Special 6-Man Tag Match: Riki Choshu, Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ueno defeated KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi & Gota Ihashi when Higuchi pinned Ihashi with the Doctor Bomb (9:26).
5. KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles: Meiko Satomura, DASH Chisako & Chihiro Hashimoto defeated Konosuke Takeshita, Akito & Yuki Iino (c) when Hashimoto pinned Iino with the Albright (15:34).
*ALL OUT fails in V3. Sendai Girls become the 38th KO-d 6-Man Tag Team Champions!
6. KO-D Tag Team Titles: Daisuke Sasaki & Soma Takao defeated Mike Bailey & MAO (c) when Takao pinned MAO with the Gin And Tonic (14:52).
*The Moonlight Express fails in V4. DAMNATION becomes the 66th KO-D Tag Team Champions!
7. DDT Extreme Title – #IThoughtOfTheExtremeRules Best 2 Out Of 3 Match: HARASHIMA (c) (2) defeated Muscle Sakai (1).
7a. Daruma-san ga Koronda Death Match: Muscle Sakai defeated HARASHIMA (c) by TKO (4:20).
7b. Telephone Death Match: HARASHIMA (c) defeated Muscle Sakai (4:50).
7c. Get Pinned For 3 Seconds Match: HARASHIMA (c) defeated Muscle Sakai with a High Kick From Below (4:25).
*V1 for HARASHIMA.

The creative juices were flowing for HARASHIMA and Muscle Sakai in their DDT Extreme Title match. It was best two out of three with a different stipulation in each fall. First fall was a game of Daruma-san ga Koronda. When that phrase was shouted into the microphone, both wrestlers had to freeze. If anyone moved they would be deducted a point and the first one to lose three points would be disqualified. Both HARASHIMA and Sakai lost their first point at the same time because the phrase was said while they were in the middle of a Brianbuster. HARASHIMA lost his second point while he was doing the Swan Dive Superplex. He was then DQ’ed when the phrase was called while he hit Sakai with the Somato.

Fall #2 was a Telephone Death Match. Both wrestlers had to constantly have a conversation with other people on their phones while they wrestled. If they get interrupted for three seconds they will lose. Sakai said he was at a disadvantage because he had poor reception in the ring. He was on the line to Michael Nakazawa and told him to come out and help when HARASHIMA was beating him. Nakazawa came out but his attack backfired and knocked Sakai’s phone away. Sakai couldn’t pick up his phone in time and he was counted out.

The third and final fall could only be won by a wrestler if he was pinned by his opponent. HARASHIMA purposely used moves that placed himself on his back and shoulders so he could get pinned but Sakai struggled away. Sakai gave HARASHIMA the Lehmann Shock twice and tried to do it a third time, enough to statistically guarantee he would win the match! But HARASHIMA suddenly kicked Sakai in the head and Sakai fell on top of him for the unintentional pin. This means HARASHIMA won the third fall and is ultimately the winner and still the Extreme Champion!

HARASHIMA thanked Sakai for the match but was quickly interrupted when Antonio Honda entered the ring only wearing a t-shirt, underwear and socks. He didn’t think about putting pants on because he is only focused on getting an Extreme Title shot! The matches he’s had when fighting for this title is the most he’s enjoyed wrestling so he wants to experience that again. Tetsuya Koda was against the idea because Honda doesn’t have the track record to deserve a title match. Hisaya Imabayashi stood up for Honda by pointing out he recently main evented Sumo Hall. That was enough to convince Koda and the title match was booked for the 28th April Korakuen Hall show.

The show was reaching its end so HARASHIMA invited Nakazawa to come out and have his farewell ceremony. Sanshiro Takagi handed Nakazawa a bouquet and admitted that even though he beat Nakazawa up over the last 14 years, he would have liked him to stay in DDT. But if Kenny Omega needs Nakazawa over in America for AEW then Takagi is more than happy to send him over. Nakazawa also said he would like to stay in DDT but he wants to help out his best friend Kenny. Nakazawa was given the 10 bell salute but it was interrupted by a video message from Omega himself! In the video Omega said it’s been a long time since he’s been with the DDT fans and he wishes he could have been at the show today. He apologised to DDT for stealing Nakazawa from them to be the AEW Vice President’s Vice President. AEW needs Nakazawa but Omega also knows that you should never forget your family. So even though Nakazawa is a part of AEW he will also continue to be a part of DDT! Nakazawa can still wrestle in DDT and who knows, maybe Kenny will also show up in DDT again someday? The video ended and Takagi’s first response was to give Nakazawa a Stunner. Maybe out of celebration for keeping Nakazawa or maybe because Omega is coming back to DDT someday. Either way it’s good news.

Both of the KO-D Tag Titles changed hands on the show today. The KO-D Tag Team Titles are back in the hands of DAMNATION when Daisuke Sasaki & Soma Takao beat The Moonlight Express. For weeks Sasaki had been in a slump losing one match after another. But with nothing left to lose he went to his cheating ways and that gave DAMNATION the chance to win. Sasaki attacked Mike Bailey with a chair then threw it at MAO when MAO jumped off the turnbuckle. The Express fought back and looked to have the match won when MAO went for the Cannonball 450° on Soma Takao while Bailey Moonsaulted out of the ring onto Sasaki. Bailey hit his target but Takao rolled away from MAO’s Cannonball. MAO tried to give Takao the Michinoku Driver I but Takao countered it into the Gin And Tonic to win.

Takao told everyone it’s been seven years since his previous KO-D Tag Title reign. He finally has it back. He would talk about it more but he has somewhere to go so he passed the microphone over to Sasaki. The DAMNATION leader mourned about today being his last day in DDT. He’s been here for 10 years and while it was good he now wants to go abroad and sign with a company like AEW. Tetsuya Endo and Mad Paulie cried as Sasaki walked away. Takao said thank you to Sasaki, something he has never said out loud. Nobuhiro Shimatani however saw an opportunity and declared himself the new leader of DAMNATION! It only lasted a few seconds because Sasaki got back into the ring and he gave Shimatani a Low Blow. Sasaki changed his mind. He is staying in DDT and will take over from Shimatani to become the new, third leader of DAMNATION!

The KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles also changed hands when the Sendai Girls defeated ALL OUT! The growing rivalry between Konosuke Takeshita and Meiko Satomura continued while they led their teams into battle. Yuki Iino found himself matching power with power against Chihiro Hashimoto while Akito faced off with DASH Chisako. Chisako dealt out RKOs and used a Top Rope Hurricanrana to fling Hashimoto onto Takeshita. Her momentum was stopped dead by Iino’s Spear. Hashimoto used her own Spears to great effect. The Sendai Girls isolated Iino and dropped him big with a Triple Tower Of Doom where Satomura & Chisako Superplexed him from an assisted Hashimoto Power Bomb. Iino struggled to fight out of Hashimoto’s grasp so Satomura hit him with the Scorpio Rising. From there Hashimoto pulled off the Albright German Suplex, resulting in new champions!

Satomura and Takeshita faced off after the match but a frustrated Takeshita backed off and left. Hashimoto told everyone that the Sendai Girls are the strongest out there among both men and women. Saki Akai then came down to the ring. She congratulated the new champions then said she wanted to be part of their first defence. Tetsuya Koda asked Akai if she has any tag partners. Akai admitted she doesn’t have any. She was so excited to come out and challenge the Sendai Girls that she never thought about who her partners should be. Satomura told Akai to go out and find her team. There is something about Akai that hasn’t been shown yet and Satomura wants to help wake up this sleeping talent.

The time for redemption was here for Gota Ihashi. After so much hard work he finally got to step in the ring again with Riki Choshu. Did he win Choshu’s respect? Eh… not really. Ihashi did his best and had the fan support despite getting pinned by Kazusada Higuchi. His effort even had Yukio Sakaguchi calling out to Choshu after the match to give the poor lad some credit. When asked about it backstage, Choshu said he didn’t care. He was fine teaming with Higuchi and Yuki Ueno though.

A sneaky Kazuki Hirata discovered that Furitsuke Kamen is unable to do his Pro Wrestling Exercises without his mask. So Hirata stole the mask before their match took place. Kamen confronted Hirata in the ring and the two duelled while the match continued. When Hirata thought he won he celebrated but Kamen chopped him in the neck and reclaimed his mask. Hirata then recovered and chopped back at Kamen. The two continued fighting until they started to like each other. They approached and looked like they were about to kiss when Makoto Oishi cradled Hirata for the three count. Hirata agreed to give Kamen his mask back so the entire venue could experience the Pro Wrestling Exercise. Everyone who was in the match was joined by Hiroshi Yamato, Pokotan and some masked dancers for a big dance performance.

Michael Nakazawa’s farewell match had a couple of restarts because he kept getting pinned within seconds. Eventually they all agreed to changed the 5 Vs 1 Handicap Match into a regular trios match. Miraculously, Nakazawa won by pinning Takagi! He got hug Takagi, Masahiro Takanashi and Tomomitsu Matsunaga and his farewell ceremony was pushed to the end of the show.

When Bull James was running wild in the opener, DAMNATION threw the trainee Nakamura into the ring to try and stop him. James picked up Nakamura and threw him out of the ring onto them instead! James went on to crush Shimatani with a Samoan Drop and then the Doink Drop for the win.

Shunma Katsumata used the Casadora to set up a Double Foot Stomp to win the pre-show match against Mizuki Watase.

Tenshin Nasukawa will be a special guest at the AbemaTowers Wrestling show on 29th March. Danshoku Dieno will also be there looking for the AbemaTV president again.

Next month’s Korakuen show will be sponsored by Souken Holdings. The company spokesman Mr. Nakano tried whatever he could to be part of the show opening announcements. He also offered to make entrance music for some of the wrestlers. His eagerness was such a nuisance that Takeshita had to chop him while Imabayashi held Nakano back. With Nakano taken care of, Takeshita changed the subject to his recent trip to the UK. He missed a connecting flight so his entire journey from Japan to England lasted 36 hours!