History

DDT, aka Dramatic Dream Team, is a wrestling promotion that was set up by Sanshiro Takagi in 1997. From the beginning DDT’s goal was to do pro wrestling differently from everyone else. Rather than follow the more serious and athletic style of wrestling, it instead took the WWE option of being more about Sports Entertainment. Throw in the bizarre sense of humour Japan is known for and the result is a very weird wrestling promotion indeed. However, over the years behind all the silliness some genuinely special talents began to form among the ranks and raise DDT’s reputation. Not only was there wacky entertainment but also genuinely good wrestling, revolutionary even. If you ever wanted to find out where names like Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega came from, it was right here in DDT. In its 20+ year history DDT captured the imagination of the wrestling fans who wanted to discover fun, crazy and downright bizarre new ideas.

DDT has produced many different sub-brands and offshoots over the years, regularly experimenting the different ways wrestling can be done and presented. BASARA represents the lower leagues of independent wrestling offering hardcore matches and shunning away from the polished presentation often found in the bigger promotions. Tokyo Joshi Pro is an idol women’s wrestling brand using its own trained girls with a vast amount of different relationships connecting the roster together. Ganbare☆Pro Wrestling is an attempt to recapture the spark of mid 90s cult feds like FMW and IWA Japan with the ultimate goal of growing into a major wrestling promotion. BOYZ is about handsome wrestlers having matches in front of women-only crowds. On the opposite end there is YaroZ, a show full of ugly bastards wrestling each other in front of crowds of just men.

Going further into the past there were other spin-offs associated with DDT. DNA was DDT’s developmental brand. Union Pro was a revival of the infamous underground league of the same name from the early 90s. Hard Hit is more of a worked shoot style hybrid using rounds and a points system and continues to exist as an independent entity. MUSCLE began as a parody of HUSTLE but then gained a life of its own by becoming the home for whatever crazy ideas Muscle Sakai thought of at the time. Cruiser’s Game focused on high flying wrestlers from throughout the independent scene. New Beijing featured DDT wrestlers doing Chinese parodies of other promotions. Finally there was Yago Pro, a sub-brand put together by Yoshiaki Yago that existed for one night only.

Below are a list of history timelines for many of the promotions connected to DDT. Unfortunately there is none written for DDT itself and I doubt I will ever be able to write up a decent timeline for DDT. It just requires too much time and effort for me to put together something collecting over 20 years of history in one place. Maybe someday but sadly not today.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Timeline (2013-2019)