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Judgement 2022: DDT 25th Anniversary

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Judgement 2022: DDT 25th Anniversary
Promotional poster featuring various DDT wrestlers
PromotionCyberFight
Brand(s)DDT Pro-Wrestling
DateMarch 20, 2022
CityTokyo, Japan
VenueRyōgoku Kokugikan
Attendance2,516[1]
Tagline(s)A Festival For All Wrestling Fans[a]
Event chronology
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Never Mind 2021 		Next →
Peter Pan 2022
Judgement chronology
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2023

Judgement 2022: DDT 25th Anniversary (Judgement2022～DDT旗揚げ25周年記念大会～, Jajimento 2022: DDT Hataage Nijūgo-shūnen Kinen Taikai) was a professional wrestling event promoted by CyberFight's DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). It took place on March 20, 2022, in Tokyo, Japan, at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan .[2] It was the twenty-sixth event under the Judgement name and the fourth to take place at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The event aired domestically on Fighting TV Samurai and globally on CyberFight's video-on-demand service Wrestle Universe. It was the culmination of a two-day event, which began with the Grand Princess '22 event held by Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW) on March 19 at the same venue.

Eleven matches were contested at the event, including two on the pre-show, presented as "dark matches" even though they were broadcast on Wrestle Universe like the rest of the card. In the main event, Tetsuya Endo defeated Konosuke Takeshita to win the KO-D Openweight Championship. In other prominent matches, Calamari Drunken Kings (Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi) defeated Disaster Box (Harashima and Naomi Yoshimura) to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship; Mao defeated Daisuke Sasaki and Jun Kasai in a hardcore three-way match to win the DDT Universal Championship; Sanshiro Takagi defeated Michael Nakazawa in a No Disqualification "I'm sorry" match; and the team of Poison Sawada Julie, Gentaro, Mikami, Takashi Sasaki and Thanomsak Toba defeated the DDT Variety Team (Toru Owashi, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata and Yoshihiko) in a 5-on-4 handicap match to win the KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Championship in the opening bout. The event also saw the retirement match and retirement ceremony of LiLiCo, as well as the announcement of an official partnership between DDT and All Elite Wrestling (AEW).[3]

Production

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Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
Japanese commentators Haruo Murata (PPV)
Kagehiro Osano (Pre-show and PPV)
Sayoko Mita (Pre-show and PPV)
Ken Kato (Pre-show)
Rina Matsuki (Guest)
Lingling (Guest)
Yui Okada (Guest)
Kenta Kobashi (Guest)
English commentators Baliyan Akki
Hiroshi Arai
Christelle Ciari
Ring announcers Inoue Mic
Kazunori Kosuge
Ken Kato
Referees Yukinori Matsui
Daisuke Kiso

Background

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Judgement is an event held annually around March by DDT Pro-Wrestling since 1997. It has been marking the anniversary of the promotion since the very first official event produced by DDT on March 25, 1997. Over the years, Judgement would become the biggest show of the year until 2009 when Peter Pan became the flagship event series.

Storylines

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Judgement 2022 featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.[4]

On the January 3 special event, after defeating Shinya Aoki, Konosuke Takeshita was confronted by his longtime rival Tetsuya Endo, who asked to be the challenger for Takeshita's scheduled defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship in the main event of Judgement. The match was immediately made official by General Manager Hisaya Imabayashi.[5]

The same day, as used to be tradition in the days of the KO-D Tag League, Disaster Box (Harashima and Naomi Yoshimura) vacated the KO-D Tag Team Championship ahead of the 2022 Ultimate Tag League so that the title would be put up for grab in the tournament.[5] Harashima and Yoshimura went on to win the tournament on February 27, thus regaining their title. However, the tournament saw many matches being forfeited due to injuries, illness and COVID-19 protocols. Most notably, Harashima and Yoshimura's only loss in the tournament was at the hands of Calamari Drunken Kings (Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi) who had to forfeit two of their four matches. After the final, Brookes and Takanashi challenged Harashima and Yoshimura to a title match at Judgement.[6]

On the February 14 free show, Mao indicated his intention to challenge Daisuke Sasaki (whom he had pinned in the Ultimate Tag League) for the DDT Universal Championship. Sasaki initially accepted, but later in the show, Jun Kasai challenged Sasaki for the championship too as a rematch of their hardcore bout at Judgement 2017 that saw Sasaki win the DDT Extreme Championship. The match was then set up as a hardcore three-way match for the Universal title at Judgement.[7]

On January 30, it was announced that Judgement 2022 would feature the retirement match of LiLiCo, a TV personality and former DDT Extreme, KO-D 10-Man Tag Team and Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion who had been involved with DDT since 2014, before she suffered a knee injury in 2018 that would prevent her to pursue an active wrestling career.[8] On February 11, a press conference was held to announce the match would see LiLiCo teaming with her husband Ryohei Odai (of kayōkyoku band Junretsu fame) and Akito. They would be accompanied by the rest of Junretsu (Kazuyoshi Sakai, Yujiro Shirakawa and Shota Gogami) and they would face Pheromones (Danshoku "Dandy" Dino, Yuki "Sexy" Iino and Yumehito "Fantastic" Imanari).[9]

On January 30, another announcement was made to reveal the mysterious wrestler from All Elite Wrestling (AEW) that would make an appearance at Judgement was Michael Nakazawa. In a pre-recorded video package, Nakazawa announced he would face DDT founder and CyberFight President Sanshiro Takagi, reigniting their long-time rivalry.[8] On March 10, Takagi and Nakazawa gave a press conference during which Nakazawa attacked Takagi, hitting him with a laptop. Takagi challenged Nakazawa to a street fight in the days leading to Judgement.[10] The match was held on March 15 in Shinjuku, near the Nakai Station, at the Inoo Book Store which was the setting for the first match of the Street Pro-Wrestling (路上プロレス, Rojō Puroresu) sub-brand in 2009. Nakazawa pinned Takagi and challenged him to a No Disqualification "I'm sorry" match at Judgement, hoping to make Takagi apologize for the numerous humiliations he put Nakazawa through throughout the years.[11]

In December 2021, several wrestlers left Ice Ribbon to become independent wrestlers and Maya Yukihi had her contract modified to be a freelancer.[12] Following the news, CyberFight announced the company was eager to bring Yukihi to DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW).[13] Yukihi made her DDT debut on January 3, 2022, and quickly entered a rivalry with Saki Akai, the only permanent female member of the DDT roster.

In 2021, the KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Championship was turned into an 8-man tag team title to facilitate title defenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.[14] On January 3, 2022, the title reverted to its original form but the champions at that time, Toru Owashi, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata and Yoshihiko, had to keep defending the title as a four-man team against five-man teams.[15] On January 30, it was announced that DDT original Poison Sawada Julie would assemble a team of DDT veterans to challenge for the title at Judgement. Alongside Sawada and his valet Naomi Suzan would be Akarangers (Takashi Sasaki and Gentaro) and Suicide Boyz (Mikami and Thanomsak Toba).[8]

Results

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No.Results[2][16][17]StipulationsTimes[18]
1PBurning (Yusuke Okada and Yuya Koroku) and Ilusion defeated Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Toui Kojima and Yuki Ishida by pinfallSix-man tag team match11:00
2PYuji Hino and Yukio Naya defeated Double Bridge (Tomohiko Hashimoto and Seiya Morohashi), Shota and Yasu Urano, Damnation T.A (Minoru Fujita and MJ Paul), Gorgeous Matsuno and Gota Ihashi, and Andreza Giant Panda and Super Sasadango Machine by pinfallTag team rumble rules battle royale14:28
3Poison Sawada Julie, Akarangers (Gentaro and Takashi Sasaki) and Suicide Boyz (Mikami and Thanomsak Toba) (with Naomi Suzan) defeated Toru Owashi, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata and Yoshihiko (c) by pinfall5-on-4 handicap match for the KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Championship8:49
4Saki Akai defeated Maya Yukihi by pinfallSingles match10:40
5Sanshiro Takagi defeated Michael Nakazawa by pinfallNo Disqualification "I'm sorry" match10:20
6The 37Kamiina (Yuki Ueno and Shunma Katsumata) defeated Isami Kodaka and Yukio Sakaguchi by pinfallTag team match11:02
7Pheromones (Danshoku "Dandy" Dino, Yuki "Sexy" Iino and Yumehito "Fantastic" Imanari) defeated LiLiCo, Ryohei Odai and Akito (with Kazuyoshi Sakai, Yujiro Shirakawa and Shota Gogami) by pinfallSix-person tag team match
This was LiLiCo's retirement match.		16:52
8Wild Burning (Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori) defeated Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi and Hideki Okatani) by pinfallTag team match12:36
9Mao defeated Daisuke Sasaki (c) and Jun Kasai by pinfallHardcore three-way match for the DDT Universal Championship19:56
10Calamari Drunken Kings (Chris Brookes and Masahiro Takanashi) defeated Disaster Box (Harashima and Naomi Yoshimura) (c) by pinfallTag team match for the KO-D Tag Team Championship18:50
11Tetsuya Endo defeated Konosuke Takeshita (c) by pinfallSingles match for the KO-D Openweight Championship46:30
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
P – the match was broadcast on the pre-show

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ A Festival For All Wrestling Fans (すべてのプロレスファンへ贈る祭り, Subete no Puroresu Fan e Okuru Matsuri)

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip (March 20, 2022). "DDT Judgement 2022 - DDT 25th Anniversary Show". cagematch.net. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  2. ^ a b 東京・両国国技館「Judgement2022～DDT旗揚げ25周年記念大会～」. DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  3. ^ Buckledee, Mark (March 20, 2022). "DDT's JUDGEMENT 2022 – 25th Anniversary: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Tetsuya Endo". POSTWrestling. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  4. ^ Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  5. ^ a b DDT25周年開幕スペシャル！全席3000円興行!!. DDT Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). March 20, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  6. ^ "DDT: HARASHIMA and Naomi Yoshimura win the Ultimate Tag League 2022". en.superluchas.com. March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  7. ^ 【DDT】3・20両国での3WAYでのUNIVERSAL王座戦、王者･佐々木大輔と葛西純がピリピリモード！もう一人の挑戦者･MAOは存在感強調も2人の“眼中”になし. proresu-today.com (in Japanese). March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c 【DDT】3･20両国でタレントLiLiCoがプロレス引退試合、米AEWから参戦の中澤マイケルは高木三四郎と一騎打ち. proresu-today.com (in Japanese). January 30, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  9. ^ 【DDT】3･20両国でプロレス引退試合のLiLiCoが純烈・小田井涼平と夫婦タッグ結成！対戦相手のフェロモンズが乱入し記者会見が大混乱に. proresu-today.com (in Japanese). February 12, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  10. ^ 【DDT】中澤マイケルが会見に乱入し高木三四郎をKO！3・20両国の前に路上マッチで激突へ. proresu-today.com (in Japanese). March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  11. ^ 高木三四郎vs中澤マイケル　路上スペシャルワンマッチ興行. DDT Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  12. ^ 【アイスリボン】世羅りさ、柊くるみ、宮城もち、藤田あかね、鈴季すずが12月末で退団。テクラは11月末退団。欠場中の弓季は引退。雪妃真矢はフリーで参戦へ. proresu-today.com (in Japanese). December 1, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  13. ^ 【アイスリボン】サイバーファイトが雪妃真矢獲りへ　ＤＤＴ、東京女子所属も. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). December 31, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  14. ^ 【ＤＤＴ】密回避へ...あのＬｉＬｉＣｏも巻いたＫＯ—Ｄ１０人タッグ王座が暫定８人タッグ王座に. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). December 21, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  15. ^ KO-D8人タッグ王座が10人タッグ王座に再変更！22年1・3後楽園で高木、彰人、高尾、伊橋、石田が挑戦. battle-news.com (in Japanese). December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  16. ^ Di Trolio, Gerard (March 21, 2022). "DDT JUDGEMENT 2022 ~ DDT LAUNCH 25TH ANNIVERSARY (MARCH 20) RESULTS & REVIEW". voicesofwrestling.com. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  17. ^ Daly, Wayne (March 20, 2022). "DDT Results: Judgement 2022 ~ DDT 25th Anniversary Show – Tokyo, Japan (3/20)". wrestling-news.net. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  18. ^ Judgement2022～DDT旗揚げ25周年記念大会～. DDT Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). March 20, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
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