DDT “SWEET DREAMS! 2023”, 29/01/2023
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
777 Fans – Super No Vacancy Full House
0. Dark Match – Bonno Dai Shacho Presents No Fee Rumble: Fuminori Abe defeated Sanshiro Takagi with a School Boy (12:29).
Order Of Elimination: Mori Haruomi, Tsutenkakuka, Honagi Takemoto, Tezuka awesome Ichiro, Ariji Akinori, Shinya, Shosaku Inoue, “Mother’s Child” Mazakon Kid, Macho Gallows, Dopyu♡McIntyre, Dick Zlater, Thick And Hard Kankuro Hoshino, BRA-VO, Kaijin Mukuro 696, Hen China, Big Bear, Crusher Inoba, ASHUKA, Tadaki Toronomi, Great-CO-Khan, Kim Yocchan, Tiger Mask V (Self-Proclaimed), Gundan Hitori, Fuck Takeda, Great-GO-Khan, Takuma Joshiba, Fat Kobashi and Sanshiro Takagi.
0. Dark Match – 4 Way Tag Match: MJ Paul & KANON defeated Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata, Antonio Honda & Akito and Yuya Koroku & Yuki Ishida when KANON submitted Honda with the Cobra Twist (7:11).
1. D GENERATIONS CUP – A Block: Hideki Okatani (2) defeated Kazuma Sumi (0) with the Double Arm Suplex (5:22).
2. D GENERATIONS CUP – B Block: Keigo Nakamura (2) defeated Takeshi Masada (0) with a Modified Crucifix Pin (7:10).
3. Special 6-Man Tag Match: Shinya Aoki, Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima defeated Thanomsak Toba, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hikaru Machida when Aoki submitted Toba with a Modified Ground Cobra Twist (8:20).
4. Special 6-Man Tag Match: HARASHIMA, Chris Brookes & Yukio Naya defeated Naruki Doi, Jun Akiyama & Soma Takao when HARASHIMA pinned Takao with the Somato (10:02).
5. KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles: Tetsuya Endo, Kotaro Suzuki & Yusuke Okada (c) defeated Yuki “Sexy” Iino, Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno & Koju “Shining Ball” Takeda when Endo pinned Dieno with the Burning Star Press (12:08).
*V1 for BURNING.
6. KO-D Tag Team Titles: MAO & Shunma Katsumata (c) defeated Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi when Katsumata pinned Oishi after the Oretachi no Mad Max (14:59).
*V1 for ShunMao.
7. KO-D Openweight Title: Yuji Hino defeated Kazusada Higuchi (c) with the Fuckin’ BOMB (26:27).
*Kazusada Higuchi fails in V6. Yuji Hino becomes the 80th KO-D Openweight Champion!
A Block
1. Hideki Okatani (2)
2. Yuya Koroku (0)
-. Ilusion (0)
-. Kazuma Sumi (0)
B Block
1. Keigo Nakamura (2)
2. Toi Kojima (0)
-. Yuki Ishida (0)
-. Takeshi Masada (0)
For the first time in over a decade Yuji Hino is the KO-D Openweight Champion! All month long Hino and Kazusada Higuchi have been chopping each other back and forth in their matches with neither wrestler backing off. Other moves were used in this match but the chop battles continued here. It’s been claimed by DDT that 220 chops were thrown in total between them today! Someone eventually had to break and it happened to Higuchi in the end. Hino got the upper hand with one more barrage of Chops and hit the Fuckin’ BOMB to become a two time KO-D Champion! After the match Hino said he was always confident he would win the KO-D Title no matter who the champion was but winning today’s match has made him more happier than he thought he would be. That’s because Higuchi was stronger than he imagined. He wants to do the match again and the two wrestlers paid respect to each other.
Higuchi left ringside while Hino told Hisaya Imabayashi he does not care who his first challenger will be on 21st March as long. His only preference is he wants the opponent to be a big guy because if it’s a small guy Hino is worried he would kill him. Yukio Naya entered the ring and said his wrestling life did a 180 since meeting Hino. He wants to beat Hino for the championship and become the strongest wrestler in DDT! However HARASHIMA then entered the ring and said he wants to fight for the KO-D Title on 21st March because it is DDT’s 26th anniversary. He’s not a big guy like Hino wants but he will prove he is still the centre of DDT! Hino couldn’t decide who to choose so Imabayashi booked Naya against HARASHIMA in a No. 1 Contender’s match on 26th February. Hino accepted the conditions and said if DDT can bolster their heavyweight division and mix it in with everything else that they do, it can become the number one wrestling promotion in Japan!
It was a show of two halves for Ω. Hino was able to win the KO-D Title but Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi couldn’t live up to their task of winning the KO-D Tag Team Titles. Instead the masters lost out to their students. They did the Cactus Flower to Shunma Katsumata but MAO broke the pin. Oishi & Asahi then tried to do an Avalance Cactus Flower but MAO cut them off again and later hit the Cannonball 450 on Oishi. The champions followed up by giving Oishi the Oretachi no Mad Max for the victory. After the match Oishi & Asahi congratulated ShunMao and wrapped the tag belts around their waists.
Imabayashi then told ShunMao their next title defence will be at Korakuen Hall on 26th February. Sanshiro Takagi & Fuminori Abe came out and challenged them for the belts. But before Imabayashi confirmed the match, Takagi told him it won’t be taking place in Korakuen on the 26th. Instead it will be a Falls Count Anywhere match happening three days earlier inside a Roppongi burlesque club! ShunMao Vs Bonno Dai Shacho for the tag titles will be at Burlesque Tokyo on 23rd February! Whichever team wins the match will have to defend the titles in Korakuen three days later.
The KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles match briefly turned into a Handicap Match thanks to some Pheromones trickery. They wanted Tetsuya Endo to join their side and Danshoku Dieno used the Lip Lock to convince him. Endo turned into Tetsuya “Hercules” Endo and he turned on Yusuke Okada, throwing his poor partner into the usual Pheromones attacks. Kotaro Suzuki tried to snap Endo back to normal and had to do something desperate. He gave him the Lip Lock! Endo recovered, realised he wasn’t wrestling in his tights anymore and pinned Dieno with the Burning Star Press.
A video message was shown to BURNING after the match. It was from Super Sasadango Machine and he has put together an impromptu unit to challenge for the KO-D 6-Man Tag Titles. The unit is himself, Shinya Aoki and Yuki Ueno! He explains that even though it looks like the three of them have nothing in common, they are all radio personalities outside of wrestling. Therefore they can use their upcoming radio appearances to promote the title match on 26th February. Back in the arena Ueno & Aoki entered the ring and asked BURNING for the title shot face to face. Endo was more concerned about trying to cover himself with the title belts so he accepted.
Future opponents HARASHIMA and Yukio Naya were on the same team earlier in the show. They along with Chris Brookes beat the trio of Naruki Doi, Jun Akiyama & Soma Takao. What happened backstage afterwards was a little more noteworthy. Doi was hyping up his DDT Universal Title defence against KANON on 18th February when KANON & MJ Paul ambushed him! Kazuki Hirata came to the rescue only to also get beaten up by DAMNATION T.A. KANON threatened to win the title and take it with him to Hollywood. He & Paul then ran off when Toru Owashi arrived on the scene.
A potential new team could be in the making coming out of Match #3. Yukio Sakaguchi & Hikaru Machida worked well together against Aoki. It should have put their team on track towards winning the match but Aoki caught Thanomsak Toba in a Cobra Twist and rolled him onto his shoulders to escape with a win. Backstage Machida said he and Sakaguchi both come from martial arts so he wants to learn from him while he is still being taught how to wrestle by Toba. Sakaguchi is gets the idea but believes Machida has a long way to go before they can become a tag team together. Meanwhile Aoki asked Toi Kojima if his monthly salary has gone up since they last met. Kojima said it hasn’t but thinks it will double when he wins the D GENERATIONS CUP. Aoki joked that if you double zero you still get zero.
Speaking of the D GENERATIONS CUP it began today with two block matches. Keigo Nakamura gets an early lead in the B Block by beating Takeshi Masada. He kicked out of a Perfect Driver, dodged a Triangle Kick and caught Masada in a Crucifix Pin for the three count. Masada thought this would be a fresh start for him but he just lost his opening group match due to underestimating Nakamura. Meanwhile Nakamura is ecstatic!
The A Block opening match had Hideki Okatani going off to a strong start. He withstood Kazuma Sumi’s quick attacks, cut him off with a Running Neckbreaker and pinned him with the Double Arm Suplex. Okatani is letting his ring work do the talking because all he told reporters afterwards is to keep watching him. Sumi admitted he felt the gap in ability and experience with the most experienced young wrestler in the tournament.
The pre show matches probably had more people involved than the entire main card put together! DAMNATION T.A won a 4 Way Tag Match. Hirata took a beating when he got caught between Yuya Koroku and Yuki Ishida but he eventually knocked both of them out with Tegatana strikes to their necks. Akito’s leg work led to a ring of Leg Holds forming around Antonio Honda in the middle of the ring. KANON wanted nothing to do with the Gongitsune joke and he made Honda submit to the Cobra Twist.
Then there was the No Fee Rumble. Oh boy this was something. Takagi and Abe invited accepted a whole bunch of amateur pro wrestlers to enter a Royal Rumble style match. Due to safety reasons entrants would be eliminated if they were knocked out of the ring no matter if it was over the top rope or not. Among the competitors were tribute acts for Asuka, Tiger Mask, Great-O-Khan and Kenta Kobashi. There was also a child, a Super Sentai and 2AW wrestler Takuma Joshiba. Takagi and Abe complained about his entry because Joshiba is an actual pro wrestler. A bunch of participants were all eliminated at the same time when a group attempt to skin the cat failed in spectacular fashion. Abe was the last man standing after he pinned Takagi with a roll up. Takagi liked Great-CO-Khan in particular and thinks he can become the next Chinsuke Nakamura.
Yuki Ueno will get to face Samuray Del Sol at “JUDGEMENT 2023” on 21st March after all. The match was announced during the show.
Dramatic DDT 