For fans of the pro wrestling scene in Japan, you may have noticed lately the increased number of matches featuring stars of All Japan Pro-Wrestling taking on the stars of DDT Pro-Wrestling.
In recent months we have seen AJPW stars appear on DDT Pro events and in exchange we have seen DDT Pro talent appearing on AJPW programing. It all started back in August when AJPW stars Suwama, Dan Tamura and Hikaru Sato appeared at the DDT Pro-Wrestling SAKI AKAI 10th anniversary show in Korakuen Hall and confronted Jun Akiyama, Yukio Naya and Yusuke Okada following their match. This confrontation led to a DDT Pro vs AJPW match at AJPW GIANT SERIES 2023 on September 8th. The DDT Pro team of Jun Akiyama, Yusuke Okada and Sanshiro Takagi defeated the AJPW team of Suwama, Dan Tamura and Hikaru Sato via referee’s decision after Akiyama choked out Tamura. The match was a hard hitting affair and proved to be a prelude to what we can expect in the war between AJPW and DDT Pro-Wrestling that is seemingly underway.
After that six man tag team match, another DDT Pro star Yukio Naya went after Suwama and the two had to be pulled apart. This led to another DDT Pro Wrestling vs AJPW six man match which was announced for September 23rd as Yukio Naya, Rukiya and Yuya Koroku will face Suwama, Dan Tamura and Ryo Inoue at AJPW GIANT SERIES 2023 which will take place at Korakuen Hall.
Up until now, the AJPW/DDT Pro inter-promotional matches have been occurring on AJPW shows but that changes on September 23rd at DDT Pro’s Who’s Gonna Top? 2023 event at Korakuen Hall. This event will follow the AJPW GIANT SERIES 2023 show which is scheduled on the same day at the same venue. This DDT Pro-Wrestling show will see four of the top young stars in each promotion lock horns in tag team action as DDT Pro’s Yuki Ueno & Toy Kojima will face AJPW’s Atsuki Aoyagi & Dan Tamura. It will be very interesting to see Yuki Ueno and Atsuki Aoyagi square off in this match as they are both considered future superstars for their respective promotions and should be able to deliver spectacular, crowd pleasing action. A singles match between the two could arguably be considered somewhat of a dream match up. While there are four men in this match, this bout is clearly all about Yuki Ueno and Atsuki Aoyagi.
Back on August 27th, the DDT Pro KO-D Six Man Tag Team Champions Hideki Okatani, Saki Akai and Yukio Sakaguchi defeated the AJPW Six Man Tag Team Champions ATM, Black Menso-re and Takao Omori to win the titles. This led to the team of ATM, Black Menso-re and DASH Chisako attempt to win the AJPW Six Man Tag Team Titles back for AJPW but were unsuccessful. The current storyline regarding the AJPW Six Man Tag Team Champions appears to be which team will be able bring the titles back to AJPW and it could get very interesting going forward.
With all the DDT Pro-Wrestling vs AJPW we have seen recently, it is my opinion that we are only witnessing the tip of the iceberg of this inter-promotional war. I fully expect more and bigger matches to take place in the near future. So with that said, could we see an full-fledged AJPW vs DDT Pro-Wrestling event heading to an arena soon? I think there is a very good chance we could see such a show and there is no doubt the fans would be all for it.
A joint show between AJPW and DDT Pro-Wrestling would be very special. Both promotions have their top superstars and young future superstars capable of delivering an exciting card of professional wrestling action from top to bottom. In my opinion, there is really only venue to hold such a special event – Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. I believe this show would sell out Korakuen Hall which has a capacity of 2,000 fans.
If this show ever became a reality, you would have think about what the main event would be. In my opinion, it would have to be a singles bout. Singles matches make much better main events as opposed to a tag team or multi-man match ups. So then which two stars, one from each promotion, could we get to deliver a stellar match that would be worthy of headlining this special joint event? The answer is very easy. The main event would have to be AJPW Megastar Kento Miyahara vs. DDT Pro Megastar KONOSUKE TAKESHITA. This is the one match that would absolutely blow the roof off of Korakuen Hall. This would be a bona fide dream matchup. Miyahara and TAKESHITA have never met each other one on one and a singles match between the two would be something very special. Plus, the leadup to this encounter could be just as fun as the actual match granted that TAKESHITA spends more time in Japan than in the USA for AEW in the weeks before the match would occur.
Now of course with all the hype I have put into a potential AJPW vs DDT Pro-Wrestling event, I have to become a fantasy booker and put together what I think would be a great line-up of AJPW vs DDT Pro inter-promotional matches:
- Main Event: Kento Miyahara (AJPW) vs KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (DDT Pro)
- AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Yuma Aoyagi (c) (AJPW) vs. Kazusada Higuchi (DDT Pro)
- DDT Pro KO-D Openweight Championship: Chris Brookes (c) (DDT Pro) vs. Yuma Anzai (AJPW)
- Yuki Ueno & MAO (DDT Pro) vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO (AJPW)
- Yuji Hino, Yukio Naya & KANON (DDT Pro) vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Suwama & Dan Tamura (AJPW)
- Cyrus The Destroyer, Shigehiro Irie, Ryuki Honda & Hokuto Omori (AJPW) vs. Jun Akiyama, Tetsuya Endo, HARISHIMA, & Akito (DDT Pro)
- Jun & Rei Saito (AJPW) vs Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul (DDT Pro)
- Yoshitatsu, Hikaru Sato, Naruki Doi, & Aigle Blanc (AJPW) vs. Hideki Okatani, Rukiya, Yuya Koroya & Yukio Sakaguchi (DDT Pro)
- Takai Omori, Black Menso-re & ATM (AJPW) vs. Toru Owashi, Yusuke Okada & Super Sasadango Machine (DDT Pro)
- Ryo Inoue (AJPW) vs. Takeshi Masada (DDT Pro)
- Yuki ” Sexy” Iino & Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno (DDT Pro) vs. ATM & Masao Hanabata (AJPW)
You can follow Lewis Carlan on Twitter @ShootingUpNorth
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