In the pre-show, a dark match saw the team of Mizuki Watase and Kota Umeda take on Hiroshi Fukuda and Guanchulo in an attempt to get rid of the King of Dark Championship. Contrary to regular professional wrestling titles, this one is awarded to the loser of the match who is then forced to wrestle in dark matches. Watase, who was the champion heading into the match, pinned Guanchulo to win the bout and pass the title onto him.[2]
Preliminary matches
The opening match was T2Hii (Sanshiro Takagi, Toru Owashi and Kazuki Hirata) defending the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship against Kazusada Higuchi, Shunma Katsumata and Kouki Iwasaki, all three from the DDT New Attitude (DNA) sub-brand of DDT focused on showcasing trainees and younger wrestlers. In the closing moments of the match, Hirata caught Iwasaki in the "Miracle One Shot Cradle" but Iwasaki countered the move into a pin of his own to win the match, making himself, Higuchi and Katsumata the first DNA wrestlers to ever win a DDT championship title.[2]
In the final match of the evening, Harashima fought Shigehiro Irie to determine a first contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship held by Isami Kodaka. In the end, Harashima was victorious after he hit Irie with two consecutive "Somato" knee strikes and covered him for the pinfall. With the win, Harashima earned a title match against Kodaka at the Judgement 2016 event on March 21.[2]
