Dramatic DDT

“NEW YEAR’S EVE WRESTLING 2016”, 31/12/2016
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,510 Fans – Super No Vacancy Full House

1. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Yukio Sakaguchi & Daichi Hashimoto defeated Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei when Hashimoto pinned Kei with the Shining Wizard (8:03).
2. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Kengo Mashimo & Shigehiro Irie defeated Naoya Nomura & Kouki Iwasaki when Irie pinned Iwasaki with the Beast Bomber (8:30).
3. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto defeated Great Kojika & Joey Ryan when Miyamoto pinned Ryan (7:12).
4. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Yuji Okabayashi & Jiro Kuroshio defeated Ayato Yoshida & Takuya Nomura when Okabayashi submitted Nomura with the Argentine Backbreaker (8:42)
5. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Daisuke Sekimoto & HARASHIMA Vs Kazusada Higuchi & Yoshihisa Uto ended in a Time Limit Draw (10:00).
5a. Overtime – 1 Count Fall: Kazusada Higuchi & Yoshihisa Uto defeated Daisuke Sekimoto & HARASHIMA when Uto pinned Sekimoto with a Lateral Cradle (1:30).
6. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Manabu Soya & Takayuki Ueki defeated Sanshiro Takagi & Abdullah Kobayashi when Soya pinned Takagi with a Horizontal Cradle (4:11).
7. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Daisuke Sasaki & Yuki Sato Vs Atsushi Aoki & Kazuki Hashimoto ended in a Time Limit Draw (10:00).
7a. Overtime – 1 Count Fall: Atsushi Aoki & Kazuki Hashimoto defeated Daisuke Sasaki & Yuki Sato when Aoki submitted Sato with the Cross Armbreaker (0:32).
8. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 1: Hideyoshi Kamitani & Konosuke Takeshita defeated Kaz Hayashi & Danshoku Dino when Takeshita pinned Dino with the German Suplex (9:38).
9. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 2: Yukio Sakaguchi & Daichi Hashimoto defeated Kengo Mashimo & Shigehiro Irie when Sakaguchi pinned Irie with the Right Knee Of God (6:16).
10. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 2: Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto Vs Yuji Okabayashi & Jiro Kuroshio ended in a Time Limit Draw (10:00).
10a. Overtime – 1 Count Fall: Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto defeated Yuji Okabayashi & Jiro Kuroshio when Kodaka pinned Kuroshio with a European Clutch (0:51).
11. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 2: Kazusada Higuchi & Yoshihisa Uto defeated Manabu Soya & Takayuki Ueki when Higuchi pinned Ueki with the Doctor Bomb (5:13).
12. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Round 2: Hideyoshi Kamitani & Konosuke Takeshita defeated Atsushi Aoki & Kazuki Hashimoto when Kamitani pinned Hashimoto with the Back Drop (8:48).
13. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Semi-Final: Hideyoshi Kamitani & Konosuke Takeshita defeated Yukio Sakaguchi & Daichi Hashimoto when Kamitani pinned Hashimoto with the Back Drop (8:47).
14. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Semi-Final: Kazusada Higuchi & Yoshihisa Uto defeated Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto when Uto pinned Kodaka with the Lariat (10:15).
15. Toshiwasure! 5 Group Shuffle Tag Tournament – Final: Kazusada Higuchi & Yoshihisa Uto defeated Hideyoshi Kamitani & Konosuke Takeshita when Higuchi pinned Takeshita with the Goten (20:37).

Korakuen Hall spent its final hours of 2016 hosting the annual New Year’s Supershow co-hosted by Big Japan, DDT, K-DOJO, WRESTLE-1 and All Japan. The entire show was built around a Shuffle Tag Team Tournament, mixing most of the wrestlers together into odd pairings. Some teams got along with each other, some didn’t but hey it’s the holidays so let’s just have fun.

The opening match saw Yukio Sakaguchi & Daichi Hashimoto barely working together to beat the Brahman Brothers. Even the evil twins suggested that their opponents would have a better chance of winning if they got along. That came back to haunt them when a stop sign attack backfired and Brahman Shu hit Brahman Kei by accident. Hashimoto then drank the Brahman’s black ink and spat it in Kei’s face, leading to the Shining Wizard to finish him off.

Kengo Mashimo & Shigehiro Irie beat Naoya Nomura & Kouki Iwasaki. The latter worked well together but they weren’t able to outlast their more experienced opponents. Irie isolated Iwasaki while Mashimo threw Nomura out of the ring. Iwasaki said he felt tense having to wrestle on the final night of the year.

The 3rd match ended in a sleazy manner thanks to Joey Ryan and Laura James. Ryan kept trying to make Yuko Miyamoto touch his groin. Referee Frank Atsushi was slammed into the turnbuckles so James ran in to interfere. This somehow led to a situation where Great Kojika was knocked onto his back, James fell down on top of him sitting on his face, Atsushi stood over her holding his groin in pain and Ryan was knocked down head first onto Kojika’s crotch. If that wasn’t enough, a dazed Miyamoto was holding a Samurai! TV camera standing over them like he was filming a porn scene. Miyamoto eventually fell on top of them for the winning pin.

The next odd couple team to come along was Yuji Okabayashi & Jiro Kuroshio. Okabayashi had not time for Kuroshio’s antics and just wanted to wrestle. Kuroshio however wanted to know if Okabayashi had a fancy jacket to match his own. He found one and offered it to Okabayashi after they beat Ayato Yoshida & Takuya Nomura but it was refused.

Daisuke Sekimoto & HARASHIMA Vs Kazusada Higuchi & Yoshihisa Uto was the first match of the night to end in a Time Limit Draw. From there the match went into sudden death 1 count fall rules. HARASHIMA and Higuchi sprinted to pin each other for just one second but neither could. It took Uto to get the upset pin on Sekimoto to win the match and knock out one-half of last year’s tournament winners in the first round.

The pairing of Sanshiro Takagi & Abdullah Kobayashi were going by the team name GET MILD. They both came out dressed in Takayuki Ueki’s old wrestling costumes with a guiding stick poking out of Takagi’s crotch. Everybody including Manabu Soya pulled out a gun during the match and dared each other to a Western showdown. But it was all a trick, Soya & Ueki both rolled over GET MILD when they turned their backs and got the three count.

Daisuke Sasaki & Yuki Sato Vs Atsushi Aoki & Kazuki Hashimoto was the next match to go into overtime. It was part of Sasaki & Sato’s plan to waste time by bringing out selfie sticks and playing around with them. Aoki jammed the stick into Sasaki’s groin then tapped out Sato with the Cross Armbreaker.

The final first round match featured Danshoku Dino trying to woo his Kaz Hayashi into being his partner in more ways than one. Hayashi eventually reciprocated and revealed he was wearing Danshoku tights under his own. Unfortunately the power of love wasn’t enough to beat Hideyoshi Kamitani & Konosuke Takeshita.

Round 2 began with Sakaguchi & Hashimoto on better terms. They needed to be if they wanted to beat Mashimo & Irie. They hit a Penalty Kick/Shining Wizard combo to Irie then Sakaguchi hit the Right Knee Of God for the three count. A handshake at the end cemented that they were now on the right page together.

The other disgruntled pairing of the tournament also finally got along. Kuroshio convinced Okabayashi to wear his fancy jacket along with a sun visor with a wig attached to it. He got into the spirit of things and did some Ikemen poses while wrestling. Their match with Yankee Two Kenju went into overtime and sadly the Ikemen dream ended badly. Isami Kodaka caught Kuroshio in a European Clutch for the one count.

Ueki had a crazy plan to beat Higuchi & Uto. It involved drinking out of a 1.5 litre bottle of Coca-Cola then tightrope walking across the top rope. What he was supposed to achieve I don’t know but he wound up slipping and crotching himself on the rope. Higuchi then pinned him with the Doctor Bomb.

Kamitani & Takeshita were the last team to qualify for the semi-final with a win over Aoki & Hashimoto. Aoki took out Takeshita with a Topé but in the ring Hashimoto was pinned by Kamitani’s Back Drop.

With the 2nd Round completed it was time for the 2016 Occupation Of The Indies Awards. Best Newcomer was given to Takuya Nomura from Big Japan. Nomura said he debuted in April and will do his best to meet everyone’s expectations. Best Show went to Ganbare☆Wrestling for “BAD COMMUNICATION 2016” held on 2nd October. Ken Ohka was there to accept the award but had to leave early to participate at “SHOTA AID” in Shin-Kiba later that night. Ohka said he eventually wants to book a show at the Tokyo Dome. Best Unit went to DAMNATION from DDT. Shuji Ishikawa celebrated by singing “Only One Flower In The World” by SMAP. He then got angry at the rest of DAMNATION for not joining in. Best Bout went to the Scaffold G Shock Death Match between Ryuji Ito Vs Kokuro Hoshino from Big Japan’s “RYOGOKUTAN” show on 24th July. Ito wasn’t happy that he lost the match but would take the award as commiseration. Finally the MVP Award went to Shuji Ishikawa. At 41 years old he would like to fight new wrestlers and win new championships.

A lottery was held to determine the semi-final match ups. First up was Kamitani & Takeshita Vs Sakaguchi & Hashimoto. Once again Kamitani’s Back Drop was the difference maker. Sakaguchi admitted he misunderstood Hashimoto at first but got to know him throughout the night in their matches. He thinks they will meet again some day.

2016 ended and 2017 begun during the Higuchi & Uto Vs Yankee Two Kenju match. Kodaka & Miyamoto both celebrated by diving out of the ring onto their opponents at the stroke of midnight. Uto claimed the first victory of the new year but giving Kodaka a Double Arm Facebuster followed by a Lariat. Miyamoto coped with defeat by grabbing the Samurai! TV camera again.

So the final was Kamitani & Takeshita Vs Higuchi & Uto in a Big Japan/DDT Vs DNA/Big Japan final. With no time limit a winner would be determined under normal circumstances. Late in the match Higuchi hit Takeshita with a Lariat but only got a one count. Kamitani blocked Higuchi from doing the Doctor Bomb but Uto got rid of him. That allowed Higuchi to give Takeshita the Goten to pin last year’s co-champion and win the tournament! Higuchi & Uto praised their opponents but they were the strongest tonight. Takeshita said he is the one who will lead DDT and he then stood up to Higuchi. In reply Higuchi said he will not lose. Kamitani said he he will lead the entire pro wrestling landscape. Uto calmed everyone down and encouraged everyone to lead pro wrestling in Japan together. The four congratulated one another and posed for the show ending photographs.