DDT
DDT Goes Hollywood
March 30, 2023
Ukrainian Cultural Center
Los Angeles, California
Full WrestleMania Weekend Event Schedule
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuki Ueno
So this was the match planned as the DDT offer match for the ill-fated TJPW American show of 2020, and it’s the perfect main event to show that DDT isn’t all fun and games, but some damn good wrestling too.
Takeshita may be a jobber to the stars in AEW, but in DDT, he’s kind of a big deal who has had numerous grandiose main events for the promotion, while still getting his hands dirty with the comedy side of things at Dramatic Dream Team
Yuki Ueno is a rising star in the promotion who seems poised to break through to the main event scene in the next year or so. This may be a lowkey assessment to see what DDT in Japan looks like with him main eventing.
This will easily be the best match on the show and has an excellent chance of being one of the most notable matches of the entire weekend.
Jun Akiyama & Eddie Kingston vs. Daisuke Sasaki & KANON
Sasaki and KANON are part of DDT’s Damnation stable, a group of ne’er do wells with the motto “We don’t conform, kiss ass or get married,” which you kind of feel should could get over in the west too. As former KO-D Openweight champions Sasaki and Akiyama, both feel somewhat wasted in this match and it may have been a better configuration to pair them off against each other. Still, this is going to be a lot of fun live.
Tetsuya Endo vs. Joey Janela
What I loved about DDT Coming to America in 2019 was how, in the best possible sense, DDT resembled a sort of traveling circus, a troupe of entertainers putting on a unique show that only they could. That kind of bounded ensemble approach to wrestling shows really stands out at WM weekend, where so many other companies are just playing matchmaker with a grab bag of rotating wrestlers.
Look I’m not a massive fan of Joey Janela, but I don’t deny he’s done well for himself as a sort of joker king of the indies, but…there’s already a GCW vs DDT show, so why are we doing this on the DDT show?
If you don’t know Endo, he came up through the ranks of DDT around the same time as Takeshita and is a great all-rounder with one of the most beautiful Sasuke Special moonsaults you’ll see. I have no idea how this match is going to go, it could be a bust, could be a surprisingly good match. Ultimately, if this match brings in new eyes for DDT, it could be a big win for the promotion.
Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada vs. Andrew “The Giant” Everett & Nick Wayne
It feels a bit weird to have Higuchi, whose title reign last year was a joy, to be in this hodgepodge tag match, which to be fair could be a very good match. Higuchi was a sumo wrestler before joining DDT so why haven’t Bloodsport signed him to inject some of that martial art into their roster? Masada was one of the stand-out talents of the recent DDT and he’s so new, he doesn’t even have a cagematch.net profile yet, debuting only in August 2022. It’s a clear sign that DDT has big plans for him that he won this coveted spot on this international tour. From all the foreign talent on this card, Everett is the one who best embodies the spirit of DDT; he’s a talented wrestler who can also see the lighter side of things. I don’t think I’ve seen Nick Wayne wrestler, but I’m told he’s the latest indie wunderkind and he has a tour with DDT soon, so in that sense, his addition to this card makes sense.
MAO & Shunma Katsumata vs. Chris Brookes & Yoshihiko
MAO and Shunma, or ShunMAO as the cool kids call them, are one of the best tag teams in the world right now, who have a very high versatility of match types. Now this is a Yoshihiko match (yes that’s the doll), so this is obviously going to lean in the comedy direction, which won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I can’t lie, I absolutely love it. Brookes has quietly made himself an integral part of the DDT mid-card in the past few years and is a perfect tag partner for Yoshihiko here.
Indie promoters who may on the off chance, be reading this: Book these guys!
Yuki “Sexy” Iino & Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno Vs Sanshiro Takagi & Michael Nakazawa
Do you like matches with homoerotic overtones and plenty of naked male buttocks? ‘Cause you’ll get an all-you-eat buffet of it here. Whether they’ll tone it down or ratchet it up for the US of A, is anyone’s guess.
Saki Akai vs. Vert Vixen
When Saki Akai walks into a room, she instantly becomes the main character, and I have no doubt she’s going to have the US crowd in the palm of her hand. I’m not familiar with Vert Vixen, who’s a former DEFY Women’s Champion and the current tag champion. This will be as good a match as any for an introduction.
