DDT Pro-Wrestling

the professional wrestling move
Japanese professional wrestling

DDT Pro Wrestling (DDTプロレスリング) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Its name stands for Dramatic Dream Team, which was the promotion's official name from 1997 to 2004. Founded in March 1997 by Shintaro Muto, the promotion was eventually bought and managed by Shoichi Ichimiya until December 2005, when Sanshiro Takagi took over as the new president. In 2017, DDT was sold to CyberAgent. Takagi retained his position, while Takahiro Yamauchi took over as the new DDT director. DDT became one of the top promotions in Japanese independent wrestling by creating a unique sports entertainment style, often parodying WWE, with a Japanese puroresu flair to the matches. DDT's biggest event is Peter Pan, held each year since 2009. The cards' matches tend to be a mixture of Japanese lucharesu (a mix of lucha libre and traditional puroresu), worked shoot style, hardcore brawling and comedy matches. DDT is in many ways a parody of American pro wrestling, particularly WWE, using over the top gimmicks (most notably Danshoku Dino) as well as unique match types including hardcore matches in a campsite (which featured use of bottle rockets as weapons), an "Office Deathmatch" (where the ring was set up to resemble a section of an office building, complete with cubicle walls and computers), and a "Silence Match" (where wrestlers were forbidden to make loud noises, resulting in slow motion chops and punches and featuring the commentary team speaking in a faux whisper). In January 2020, DDT's parent company CyberAgent purchased Pro Wrestling Noah, with DDT's executives taking over Noah's operations and Noah's content appearing on DDT's streaming service Wrestle Universe.

The promotion was founded by Shintaro Muto, Sanshiro Takagi, Kyohei Mikami and Kazushige Nosawa, after they left Pro Wrestling Crusaders. The promotion was named Dramatic Dream Team, its first event took place on January 31, 1997, in Tokyo. In 1999, DDT started producing pay per view digests of its product on DirectTV. The promotion then established their own governing body in 2000, the King of DDT, shortened as KO D, creating the KO D Openweight Championship, Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship and the KO D Tag Team Championship. DDT also created their own tag team tournament the DDT Tag League. Later in 2003, Shoichi Ichimiya became the new president of DDT.

On 2004, DDT rebranded to DDT Pro Wrestling yūgen gaisha renaming the promotion to DDT Pro Wrestling. In October, DDT got a timeslot on Fighting TV Samurai, creating their regular broadcast program DDT Dramatic Fantasia. In 2005, indie promotion Union Pro Wrestling was revived by DDT. On December 28, 2005 Ichimiya retired from professional wrestling and announced his departure from DDT. This led to Sanshiro Takagi taking over the promotion as the new president. Then the company focused on the feud between the face stable Italian Four Horsemen and the heel stable Disaster Box. In November 2006, DDT announced the creation of their fourth active title the DDT Extreme Championship. Later in 2007 DDT announced a working relationship with Dragon Gate. DDT and Dragon Gate held their first co promoted show, Dramatic Dream Gate on April 18, 2007 in Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, Japan. DDT would later become a member of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance. The group was established as a means to aid the many competing wrestling promotions in Japan. In 2009, DDT announced that they were going to become a stock company, turning their company from private to public. In March 2010, DDT announced a working relationship with Big Japan Pro Wrestling. Later in March, Takagi announced the DDT48 (later renamed Dramatic Sōsenkyo), which was a fan vote where the winner received a shot at the KO D Openweight Championship. Later that month, in storyline, Michael Nakazawa stepped down as the CEO of DDT and Amon Tsurumi became the General Manager of the promotion. In 2011, DDT received the Fighting TV Samurai Indie no Oshigoto prize for having the best show the year, winning the Best Show Award for Judgement 2011. In March 2012, the Dramatic Fantasia weekly program was briefly cancelled by Samurai TV. This led to the launch of the program DDT Wrestling Hour on Niconico, starting April 2. On June 4, DDT launched another sub brand named Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW), which was exclusive to women's wrestlers. DDT celebrated its 15th anniversary on August 18, 2012, by holding its first ever event in Nippon Budokan. On December 23, 2012, DDT announced the creation of their fifth active title, the KO D 6 Man Tag Team Championship. On January 17, 2013, DDT announced that Daisuke Sasaki had signed a contract to officially make DDT his home promotion, ending his days as a freelancer. On April 17 DDT formed another sub brand Ganbare☆Pro Wrestling (GanPro). On May 3, DDT's Max Bump event was broadcast live by Samurai TV. After that DDT launched a weekly program DDT's Pro Wrestling Banzai ＼(^o^)／, which was also broadcast by Samurai TV. On November 28, DDT announced a new project named DDT New Attitude (DNA) which would be another sub brand of DDT, functioning as a developmental brand for DDT. On January 14, 2015, DDT opened a women's wrestling school with Makoto Oishi and Cherry as instructors. Later DDT announced the creation of their sixth active title, the King of Dark Championship, which would be "won" by the loser of a dark match. On June 23, DDT opened the Dropkick Bar which is a professional wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts themed sports bar. Professional wrestling personalities regularly make appearances at the bar. On August 17 it was announced that Union Pro would be folding after its 10th anniversary event on October 4. Three days after its folding, Union was replaced by a new promotion named Pro Wrestling Basara, which launched in January 2016. In October 2016, DDT announced "DDT Universe", a new streaming service for events held by DDT, DNA, Basara, TJPW and GanPro. The service launched on January 23, 2017. On April 30, 2017, announced the creation of their seventh active title, the KO D 10 Man Tag Team Championship, meant for teams of five wrestlers, the title is believed to be the first of its kind in professional wrestling. with the inaugural champions crowned on August 20, 2017. On July 5, 2017, it was announced that DDT had entered into a partnership with Canada's Canadian Wrestling's Elite promotion. On August 20 Danshoku Dino defeated Sanshiro Takagi in a match, where if Dino won he would become the Producer of DDT. After Dino won he fired the DDT's General Manager Amon Tsurumi and Turumi returned to a backstage role as assistant producer and reverted to his real name Hisaya Imabayashi. Dino also announced the creation of a new tournament called "D Oh Grand Prix".

On September 1, 2017, 100% of DDT's shares were sold to the CyberAgent company. Sanshiro Takagi remained as the DDT president, while CyberAgent director Takahiro Yamauchi took over as the new DDT director. On June 11, 2019, DDT announced Basara would be splitting up from DDT and become an independent company starting January 1, 2020. In October, the third edition of the annual "Iron Fist Tag Tournament" led to the creation of Basara's first tag team championship, the Iron Fist Tag Team Championship. On January 28, 2020, DDT's parent company CyberAgent purchased Pro Wrestling Noah. DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi was named the President of Pro Wrestling Noah and Naomichi Marufuji the Vice President. Noah's events began airing on DDT's streaming service DDT Universe starting with Noah's Global Jr. League 2020 on January 30. On July 27, 2020, it was announced Noah and DDT would merge in a new company, CyberFight. On March 20, 2022, at Judgement, it was announced that All Elite Wrestling (AEW) had formed a working relationship with DDT and TJPW that would see wrestlers from both brands appear on AEW programming. On December 15, 2023, DDT was announced as one of the founding members of the United Japan Pro Wrestling alliance, a joint effort to further develop professional wrestling in Japan through promotion and organization, with Seiji Sakaguchi being named as the chairman of the project.

DDT has had a lot of different championships, some of which were very short lived. Championship Last champion(s) Reign Date won Location NotesTōno Openweight Championship72612005Tōno, JapanDefeated Cherry and Tomohiko Hashimoto at Tōno Jingisukan 2005 to become the inaugural champion. Inactive since. Greater China Unified Sichuan Openweight ChampionshipDanshoku Dino12009Tokyo, JapanUnified with the DDT Extreme Championship at Ryōgoku Peter Pan. Umemura PC Juku Copy & Paste ChampionshipDanshoku Dino12009Nagoya, JapanUnified with the DDT Extreme Championship at Ryōgoku Peter Pan. GAY World Anal ChampionshipDanshoku Dino22009Tokyo, JapanDefeated Masa Takanashi at Ryōgoku Peter Pan to unify the title with the DDT Extreme Championship. JET World Jet ChampionshipDanshoku Dino12009Tokyo, JapanDefeated Masa Takanashi at Ryōgoku Peter Pan to unify the title with the DDT Extreme Championship. World Midbreath ChampionshipDanshoku Dino12009Tokyo, JapanDefeated Masa Takanashi at Ryōgoku Peter Pan to unify the title with the DDT Extreme Championship. Jiyūgaoka 6 Person Tag Team ChampionshipShit Heart♥Foundation12010Tokyo, JapanDefeated Great Kojika, Riho and Mr. #6 at Shin Kiba 5th Anniversary Special. Deactivated. Sea Of Japan 6 Person Tag Team ChampionshipShit Heart♥Foundation12010Tokyo, JapanDefeated Great Kojika, Riho and Mr. #6 at Shin Kiba 5th Anniversary Special. Greater China Unified Zhongyuan Tag Team ChampionshipTKG4822011Tokyo, JapanDefeated The Great Sasuke and Ricky Fuji at Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2011. World Aipoke ChampionshipSuper Sasadango Machine1May 18, 2014Tokyo, JapanDefeated Ryu Gouma in a No Disqualification Only "Say Yes" Deathmatch at Golden Union 2014. Inactive following Union Pro folding on October 4, 2015. IMGP World Heavyweight ChampionshipAtsushi Maruyama22015Osaka, JapanDefeated Super Sasadango Machine at Dramatic Dreams! Vol. 2: No Subtitle to win the vacant title. Fly To Everywhere World ChampionshipCherry3September 15, 2015Tokyo, JapanDefeated Aoi Kizuki at Union Harvest Festival 2015. Inactive following Union Pro folding on October 4, 2015. King of Dark ChampionshipDai Suzuki22017Tokyo, JapanLost to Gota Ihashi at Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2017 to win the title. Inactive following Suzuki's retirement. Uchicomi! Openweight Ultimate ChampionshipKen Ohka12018Tokyo, JapanWon a Scramble Tag Team Rumble Match by last eliminating Gota Ihashi at Summer Vacation 2018 to become the inaugural champion. Kōkū kōen Park Town ChampionshipKeisuke Ishii1August 24, 2019Tokorozawa, JapanWas awarded the title after pinning Shuhei Washida in a tag team match at Ganbare☆Kōkū kōen. UWA World Trios ChampionshipSparky1December 29, 2019Tokyo, JapanDefeated Takato Nakano, Takumi Tsukamoto and Yasu Urano at Basara 115. Title moved to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW). Independent World Junior Heavyweight ChampionshipShota1December 26, 2020Tokyo, JapanDefeated Asuka at The World 2020. Title moved to Professional Wrestling Just Tap Out (JTO). GWC 6 Man Tag Team ChampionshipThe Halfee2May 29, 2021Tokyo, JapanDefeated Asuka, Hagane Shinno and Shinichiro Tominaga at True Romance 2021. Title moved to Total Triumph Team Pro Wrestling (TTT).

AccomplishmentLast winner(s)Date wonLocationNotesKing of DDTChris BrookesMay 21, 2023Tokyo, JapanDefeated Kazusada Higuchi in the tournament final. D Oh Grand PrixYukio NayaJanuary 3, 2024Tokyo, JapanDefeated Tetsuya Endo in the tournament final. Ultimate Tag LeagueDisaster BoxFebruary 27, 2022Tokyo, JapanDefeated The37Kamiina (Konosuke Takeshita and Yuki Ueno) in the tournament final. D Generations CupTakeshi MasadaFebruary 16, 2023Tokyo, JapanDefeated Yuya Koroku in the tournament final.

AccomplishmentLast winner(s)Last heldNotesKing of Street WrestlingChris Brookes2022A single elimination street fight tournament. Young Drama CupSoma Takao2010A round robin tournament for the younger talent of DDT, held in 2009 and 2010.

AccomplishmentLast winner(s)Date wonLocationNotesDDT Dramatic General ElectionMasahiro Takanashi October 30, 2018Tokyo, Japan (DDTドラマティック総選挙). Won by fan votation. Formerly known as DDT48. Shuten dōji Right to Challenge Anytime, AnywhereShinya AokiAugust 14, 2022Tokyo, JapanContracts for a championship match, which can be "cashed in" by the holder at any point in the year following their victory (similar to WWE's Money in the Bank contract). Unlike Money in the Bank, contract holders have to defend their contracts in every official match in which they participate.

Dropkick Bar is a professional wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts themed sports bar owned and operated by DDT in Shinjuku. Professional wrestling personalities make appearances at the bar.