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 It's tournament time again!  Well, it's pretty much always tournament time somewhere in Japan, but this one might be watched by a few more people than the ongoing Champion Carnival over at All Japan. Luckily the KO-D title is not on the line this year, the man mountain Yuji Hino has not fallen to a freak injury like Tetsuya Endo last year. First two shows are at Shinjuku FACE so are unlikely to have commentary, but the semis and finals are at Korakuen so they'll be back for that. Also keen eye viewers will notice that there's no Pheromones in the tournament which is very good news to me at least.Opening Brackets and Best Placing - Yusuke Okada (Debut) vs Kazusada Higuchi (Winner 2022) - Shunma Katsumata (2nd Rd) vs Hideki Okatani (1st Rd) - Sanshiro Takagi (Finals) vs Yukio Sakaguchi (Winner 2015) - HARASHIMA (Winner 2010, 2013) vs Chris Brookes (1st Rd) - Jun Akiyama (Semis) vs Tetsuya Endo (Winner 2017, 2020) - MAO (Semis) vs Takeshi Masada (Debut) - Kotaro Suzuki (Debut) vs KANON (1st Rd) - Yuki Ueno (Semis) vs Naruki Doi (Debut) There's a couple of interesting threads here heading into the tournament: - Sanshiro Takagi made a promise that he would face Konosuke Takeshita one more time before retirement, and he would do it as champion - Kazusada Higuchi is looking to become the first back to back winner and get a shot at the man who took his title in January - Tetsuya Endo is looking to become the only three time winner and regain the title he never lost - Chris Brookes is wondering whether it was worth it to upend his life and stay in Japan when the pandemic started as he hasn't had the singles success he was hoping for, having never made it past the first round in the tournament - Yuki Ueno is still struggling to forge his own identity out of Takeshita's shadow, especially as the other members of 37KAMIINA go from strength to strength. An additional dagger is that his first round opponent is the guy he lost the Universal Belt to, but Doi has since lost to Endo so Ueno can't even broker a win here into a rematch - Shunma has three titles and wants a 4th, the selfish bastard And probably a couple others i'm forgetting. I'm expecting at least the above to win their first round matches, but Takagi losing his first round match after making such an emotional promise would be extremely funny so they could totally do that. Either way, we'll see in less than 12 hours who's dreams will come crashing down at the very first hurdle. I'll probably post my bad and wrong predictions tomorrow morning when getting ready for the show, you should too. Show 1 - Saturday May 6th 12pm JST/1pm AEST/4am BST/11pm EST/8pm PST Show 2 - Sunday May 7th 12pm JST/1pm AEST/4am BST/11pm EST/8pm PST Show 3 - Sunday May 21st 11.30am JST/12.30pm AEST/3.30am BST/10.20pm EST/7.30pm PST As always for these morning shows, the American times listed actually occur on the date before what is written. There might not be a ton that needs to be translated but just in case it's good to have the English twitter up as they also post gifs of cool things
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May 5, 2023 19:17
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| # ? Apr 30, 2024 19:30 |
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Stream is live, show starts in a couple of minutes. Predictions: Higuchi beats Okada Okatani beats Shunma Takagi beats Sakaguchi Brookes beats HARASHIMA Endo beats Akiyama MAO beats Masada Suzuki beats KANON Doi beats Ueno Higuchi beats Okatani Takagi beats Brookes Endo beats MAO Doi beats Suzuki Endo beats Doi Higuchi beats Takagi Endo beats Higuchi
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May 6, 2023 03:58
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Higuchi just doesn't look right as a bald man
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May 6, 2023 04:01
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This match rocks, just deliciously stiff e: Probably my favourite Yusuke Okada match, great stuff SG Bamboo fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 6, 2023 |
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May 6, 2023 04:08
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 He has no time for Shunma's poo poo today
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May 6, 2023 04:14
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This match also rules, Okatani is becoming such a star
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May 6, 2023 04:21
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THE BOY
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May 6, 2023 04:23
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Oh god that would have been amazing if Sakaguchi pinned him after one move
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May 6, 2023 04:27
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Please Chris you can't let this old man knock you out
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May 6, 2023 04:42
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I hope i'm 10% as mobile as HARASHIMA when i'm 48, dude is an absolute monster
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May 6, 2023 04:44
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CHRIS 
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May 6, 2023 04:47
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The snake Koroku openly rooting against Uncle Jun
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May 6, 2023 04:59
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Well poo poo, wasn't expecting that one  Guess that's why it wasn't the main event
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May 6, 2023 05:02
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MAO's a kickboxer now I guess. Don't think he can win a strike battle against Masada
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May 6, 2023 05:06
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One good thing about this being a no commentary show is that they don't need to worry about having to mix it with the ring audio, we're just getting that that pure striking action and it sounds loving crisp
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May 6, 2023 05:11
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Oh poo poo that was nearly disaster
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May 6, 2023 05:12
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Match ruled, Masada is such a star. All the DDT rookies are fantastic but he's clearly being earmarked for greatness
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May 6, 2023 05:16
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Kotaro had a rad as hell match the other day in All Japan, hoping he can bring the best out of KANON here while he's not being dragged down by Sasaki
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May 6, 2023 05:23
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lol KANON trolled again, no wonder he's not having fun
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May 6, 2023 05:27
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Jesus, loving rocked him there
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May 6, 2023 05:43
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Ueno's standing dropkick always gets them right in the face 
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May 6, 2023 05:47
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Hell yeah, good job lad. Not what I would have chosen for the main but still a real good match. Whole show was fantastic, funny how that happens when there's no Pheromones on the card. Looking forward to the next round tomorrow
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May 6, 2023 05:48
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Night 2 proper is starting in 15, dark match featuring the rookies is happening right now Card: DDT “KING OF DDT 2023 2ND ROUND”, 07/05/2023 Shinjuku FACE 0. Dark Match: Yuni & Yuki Ishida Vs Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi 1. Yuki “Sexy” Iino & Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno Vs Akito & Antonio Honda 2. Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON Vs Shunma Katsumata, Toi Kojima & Takeshi Masada 3. Special 8-Man Tag Match: Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada Vs HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata 4. King Of DDT 2023 – Round 2: Kotaro Suzuki Vs Yuki Ueno 5. King Of DDT 2023 – Round 2: Jun Akiyama Vs MAO 6. King Of DDT 2023 – Round 2: Sanshiro Takagi Vs Chris Brookes 7. King Of DDT 2023 – Round 2: Kazusada Higuchi Vs Hideki Okatani
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May 7, 2023 03:49
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Well, that certainly felt a lot longer than 20 minutes
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May 7, 2023 04:18
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lol Shunma you dumbass, you're not Kommander
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May 7, 2023 04:23
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Hopefully Hino and Hirata are in for the bulk of this match. make up for them not being on the card yesterday
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May 7, 2023 04:34
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Oh Hirata, you're in the bad part of town. You poor man
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May 7, 2023 04:39
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Even when it's 4vs1 he's still afraid of Sakaguchi 
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May 7, 2023 04:45
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Nice guy Hino pretending the attack worked to bolster Hirata's confidence
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May 7, 2023 04:47
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Holy poo poo that finish was the best HARASHIMA dances while Hirata gets beaten to death in the background
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May 7, 2023 04:50
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https://twitter.com/ddtproENG/status/1655058005573140482
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May 7, 2023 04:53
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Maybe don't dive to the outside at Shinjuku FACE, there's very little space before you start hitting crowd
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May 7, 2023 05:02
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Oh nice, I was half expecting them to continue the push Kotaro is getting in other promotions
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May 7, 2023 05:07
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Gonna have to try a bit harder to hoodwink Akiyama
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May 7, 2023 05:12
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lol gotem
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May 7, 2023 05:19
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booooo
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May 7, 2023 05:21
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What the gently caress Chris?!?
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May 7, 2023 05:26
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This is a mess but not exactly in a fun way
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May 7, 2023 05:36
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At least the right guy won
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May 7, 2023 05:37
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| # ? Apr 30, 2024 19:30 |
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What a difference the year in Eruption has done to Okatani's fighting spirit, Higuchi absolutely murdered him the last time they fought
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May 7, 2023 05:55
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