is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. 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 , better known by his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler. Takagi's gimmick is that he is Stone Cold Steve Austin. He is known in Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) and around the micro-indy scene for his hilarious promos and natural charism ...

took over as the new president. In 2017, DDT was sold to

CyberAgent is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is executive vice ...

. 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 In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor league for pro wres ...

by creating a unique sports entertainment style, often parodying

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

, with a Japanese

puroresu is the predominant style of professional wrestling that has developed in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese pronunciation of , which is shortened to puroresu. The term became popular among English-speaking fans due to Hisaharu Tanabe's act ...

flair to the matches. DDT has had agreements with various MMA and professional wrestling promotions around the world. DDT's biggest event is

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

, 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 , better known by his ring name , also written Danshoku Dieno, is a Japanese professional wrestler. Dino has spent most of his career competing for DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT), where he plays an overly exaggerated homosexual character. His ring name ...

) 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 (stylised as Pro Wrestling NOAH) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) ace Mitsuharu Misawa after he had led a mass exodus in which 24 of AJPW's 26 contracted wrestlers left the ...

, with DDT's executives taking over Noah's operations and Noah's content appearing on DDT's streaming service

Wrestle Universe , formerly known as , is a subscription-based video streaming service owned by CyberAgent's subsidiary CyberFight. On October 24, 2016, DDT Owner Sanshiro Takagi came down to the ring prior to that day's event and announced that DDT would be debut ...

History

Dramatic Dream Team (1997–2004)

The promotion was founded by Shintaro Muto,

Kyohei Mikami (born December 28, 1973), known by his stage name Mikami, is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is best known for his work for Dramatic Dream Team both as a singles wrestler and with Thanomsak Toba in a tag team called Suicide Boyz. Career C ...

and

Kazushige Nosawa , better known by his ring names Nosawa and , (born December 17, 1976) is a Japanese freelance professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in All Japan Pro Wrestling and various independent promotions. Career Early career (19952004) Nos ...

, 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 The is a professional wrestling world openweight championship and the top singles accomplishment in the Japanese promotion CyberFight currently defended in the DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) brand division. It is one of CyberFight's top major world tit ...

Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the Japanese promotion CyberFight in its DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) brand. Open to anyone, regardless of gender or DDT employment status, the championship is defended " 24/7", as i ...

and the

KO-D Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the Japanese promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The title was established in 2001. In its early days, DDT occasionally referred to the title as the . It is currently the only tag te ...

. DDT also created their own tag team tournament the

DDT Tag League The Ultimate Tag League is a professional wrestling round-robin tag team tournament held by DDT Pro-Wrestling. It was created in 2000 as the and was renamed in 2001. In 2021, the tournament was brought back 16 years after the previous edition un ...

. Later in 2003,

Shoichi Ichimiya is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist working for various Japanese professional wrestling promotions such as DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) and Apache Pro-Wrestling Army. Professional wrestling career Incependent circuit ...

became the new president of DDT.

Independent DDT Pro-Wrestling (2004–2017)

On 2004, DDT rebranded to DDT Pro-Wrestling

yūgen gaisha A , abbreviated in English as "Y.K." or "Co., Ltd.", is a form of business organization in Japan. are based on the Germany, German and were implemented in Japan in the Limited Company Act (') of 1940. The Companies Act of Japan, implemented on Ma ...

renaming the promotion to DDT Pro-Wrestling. In October, DDT got a timeslot on

Fighting TV Samurai Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

, 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 The is a singles title in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling. The title was established in 2006 and it is mostly defended in stipulation matches, with the defending champion being given the right to choose the stip ...

. 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 Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA) was a cooperative group of professional wrestling promotions and wrestlers from around the world. Formed in 2006, the group was founded by the professional wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa, the founder ...

. 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 (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. History Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasaki, ...

. 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 , better known by the ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler and judoka signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Early life Nakazawa attended Tokai University before studying abroad in the United States were he obtained an MSc Sports Scienc ...

stepped down as the CEO of DDT and Amon Tsurumi became the

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

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 , often abbreviated to TJPW, is a Japanese joshi puroresu or women's professional wrestling promotion founded in 2012 as a sister promotion of DDT Pro Wrestling. Initially running alongside other shows such as live music and other idol performa ...

(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 The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts con ...

. On December 23, 2012, DDT announced the creation of their fifth active title, the

KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling championship owned by the DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) promotion. The title was first announced during DDT's year-end event on December 23, 2012, becoming the promotion's fifth active title. The first champions were c ...

. On January 17, 2013, DDT announced that

Daisuke Sasaki is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT), where is a former two-time DDT Universal Champion. In addition to that, in DDT, he is also a former three-time KO-D Openweight Champion, one-time DDT Extreme Champi ...

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 , often abbreviated to GanPro, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2013 as a sister promotion of DDT Pro-Wrestling. Although it originated as a special event by the parent company DDT, it has since become its own promotion. ...

(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 In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

for DDT. On January 14, 2015, DDT opened a women's wrestling school with

Makoto Oishi is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Dramatic Dream Team (DDT). Oishi started his career in Kaientai Dojo, where he became a Strongest-K Tag Team, Independent World Junior Heavyweight and UWA World Middleweight Champion ...

and Cherry as instructors. Later DDT announced the creation of their sixth active title, the

King of Dark Championship The was a professional wrestling championship created by Amon Tsurumi. The champion was forced to wrestle exclusively in dark matches on DDT shows. Contrary to regular professional wrestling championships, the title was not rewarded to the win ...

, which would be "won" by the loser of a

dark match Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of jargon throughout its existence. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals and circuses. In the past, professional wrestlers used such terms in the presence o ...

. 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 is a Japan, Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The promotion was founded in 2015 as a sub-brand of DDT Pro-Wrestling and was essentially a relaunch of :ja:ユニオンプロレス, Union Pro Wrestling, acqu ...

, 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 The is a professional wrestling championship owned by the DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion. Meant for teams of five wrestlers, the title is believed to be the first of its kind in professional wrestling. The title was first announced on April 30, 20 ...

, 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

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".

DDT under CyberAgent (2017–present)

On September 1, 2017, 100% of DDT's shares were sold to the

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 Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

championship, the

Iron Fist Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team Championship (professional wrestling), championship owned by the Pro-Wrestling Basara professional wrestling promotion, promotion, a former DDT Pro-Wrestling sub-brand before it became an independent prom ...

. On January 28, 2020, DDT's parent company CyberAgent purchased

. 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 , operating simply as CyberFight (CF), is a Japanese professional wrestling parent company based in Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of the CyberAgent internet advertising company. CyberFight serves as an umbrella brand for two existing promotions: Pro Wr ...

. On March 20, 2022, at

Judgement Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...

, it was announced that

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, w ...

(AEW) had formed a working relationship with DDT and TJPW that would see wrestlers from both brands appear on AEW programming.

Personnel

Championships

Current championships

Former, inactive and defunct championships

DDT has had a lot of different championships, some of which were very short-lived.

Events

Marquee events

* Ultimate Party * Into The Fight * Max Bump * God Bless DDT * Who's Gonna Top? * Never Mind

Tournaments

Active

Inactive

Accomplishments

Dropkick Bar

Dropkick Bar is a professional wrestling,

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

and

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

-themed

sports bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

owned and operated by DDT in

. Professional wrestling personalities make appearances at the bar.

Broadcasters

Domestic: *

(2004–present, currently broadcasting live specials, retrospective shows and magazine show DDT Pro Wrestling Banzai) *

AbemaTV Abema (, stylized as ABEMA) is a Japanese live TV streaming website owned by the entertainment company, AbemaTV, Inc. that provides over-the-top media services to customers in Japan. The website primarily acts as an online television network, ...

(2017–present, online linear television service, live-streaming episodes of DDT Pro Wrestling Banzai) * Nico Nico Douga (2012–present, currently broadcasting live specials, DDT Wrestling Hour streaming untelevised spot-shows and interviews) Worldwide: *

(streaming service, broadcasting most DDT shows live, as well as on-demand classic, as well as content from other promotions, beginning with DDT sister promotions Pro Wrestling Noah, Ganbare☆Pro-Wrestlng and Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling) *

FITE TV Fite (stylized as FITE by Triller) is an American digital video streaming service launched on May 20, 2012, that is dedicated to combat sports-related programming (including boxing, mixed martial arts, and professional wrestling). The network dis ...

(2020–present, streaming service, broadcasting most DDT big shows live, as well as on-demand classic)

References

External links

*
DDT UniverseDramatic Dream Team (Japan)
- Title history of all major DDT championships {{Portalbar, Japan 1997 establishments in Japan CyberAgent Entertainment companies established in 1997 Japanese professional wrestling promotions Shinjuku