Dramatic Dream Team, better known by its initials DDT or its logo reading D2T, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 1997 by Sanshiro Takagi. It became one of the top names in Japanese indy wrestling by creating a unique Sports Entertainment style with a Japanese puroresu flair to the matches.

DDT started producing Pay-Per-View digests of its product on DirectTV during late 1999 to 2003 when they finally got an hour's timeslot on Samurai TV, Japan's premier sports channel which shows a lot of professional wrestling from both Japan and the United States.

The cards' matches tend to be a mix of Japanese lucharesu, semi-worked shoot-style, hardcore brawling and comedy matches. DDT is in many ways a parody of American pro wrestling, particularly World Wrestling Entertainment, using over-the-top gimmicks (most notably Danshoku Dino) as well as unique match types including a hardcore match 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).

[edit] Championships

DDT currently has 5 recognized championships^[1], the top titles being the KO-D (King of DDT) championships.

[edit] The DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship

The Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship is defended anywhere against anyone, even during non-title matches or tag team matches, under 24/7 rules^[2] (if there is an official DDT referee present, the title can be won and lost), and unlike other Ironman championships does not need to be defended under 'Ironman' rules. The 24/7 'rule' is more-or-less a parody to the same rules that applied to the WWE Hardcore Championship. It is treated as a 'joke' championship, having 2 wrestlers, Yuukoh Miyamoto and Shinobi, exchange the belt 62 times with each other in one night (some of those title changes via Rock, Paper, Scissors) and being won from a wrestling fan winning an auction for the belt. Notable "champions" also include a dog and a ladder.

A regular match in DDT for the title is a 10-minute battle royal where the title can change hands any number of times, and the person who has the belt when the time limit expires can leave as champion. This is ironic in itself, as due to the 24/7 rules, the champion could be defeated for the belt right after the match finishes.

[edit] Former Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship holders

To date, there have been over 700 title changes for the belt, with Gorgeous Matsuno becoming the 700th champion, and has been won by numerous female wrestlers and non-wrestlers, including children, animals and inanimate objects.

[edit] Wrestlers

• Kikutaro
• W*ING Kanemura
• Madman Pondo
• JC Bailey
• 2 Tuff Tony
• MIKAMI
• Kota Ibushi
• Danshoku Dino
• Muscle Sakai
• Michael Nakazawa
• Yuki Miyazaki - A female wrestler
• Toshie Uematsu - A female wrestler
• President Ramu - a 'possessed' little girl with the ability to chokeslam adults

[edit] Non-wrestlers

• Erika Yamakawa - a female celebrity
• A TV cameraman working for DDT
• Sayoko Mita - a female newscaster for a cable television station
• The chief chef of the Yakeyama Springs Inn where wrestlers were fighting in
• A taxi driver
• Shimon Nagao - A fan picked from the audience
• Kazuki Okubo, mixed martial artist, lost the belt during a subsequent MMA bout to Takashi Echigo
• The Great Mampuku and AD Yamamoto - both characters from a TV show for children
• Megumi Grace Asano - DDT's female referee
• Yukinori Matsui - DDT's male referee
• Reiji Azuma - An elementary school boy
• Airi Ueda, Shiori Takahashi, & Minami Tanabe - Three elementary school girls, recognized together as co-champions
• Nao Saejima - An adult video actress

[edit] Animals

• Yatchan - A monkey
• Cocolo - A miniature Dachshund dog.

[edit] Inanimate objects

• Kitty-Chan - a stuffed 'Hello Kitty' doll
• Mah-Kun - another stuffed doll, who defeated 'Kitty-Chan' for the belt
• A baseball bat - lost the belt after being broken in half as a 'KO' decision
• Three different ladders - each fell on the champion and a pinfall was counted, with some successfully defending the title by not being pinned during the time limit battle royal matches.
• Chiririn - a chicken doll
• Mr. Kasai - a stuffed Jun Kasai doll. Mr. Kasai has won the belt twice.
• A Pro Wrestling Wave poster.
• YOSHIHIKO - An inflatable 'love doll'. Wrestlers treat it as if it actually was an active wrestler, and actually sell moves "done" by him/her, mostly high flying moves. The original YOSHIHIKO was 'killed' by an Antonio Honda knee drop which caused its head to burst open, and was replaced by a second YOSHIHIKO, who is also a 'love doll', only modified to resemble the Great Muta

[edit] Non-existent

• Misutero - An "invisible wrestler" i.e. non-existent. Opponents sell moves of a wrestler who isn't there, and the title is held by nothing and no-one but the wrestlers and referees act as if they can see and pin the "invisible wrestler". Muscle Sakai "won" the title from this "invisible wrestler" by using a "ray gun" and "infrared visor" to shoot the "invisible wrestler", winning the belt on a KO decision.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Pro-Wrestling Title Histories: Dramatic Dream Team
2. ^ Ironman Heavymetalweight Title

[edit] External links

• http://www.ddtpro.com - Official DDT website
• http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/ddt/ - Title history of all DDT championships
• http://ddt.puroresufan.com/ - Fansite with results, roster

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