The finals of the 2021 edition of the King of DDT tournament are taking place on July 4th, with four men still vying for the honour.
Whittled down from a field of sixteen, the remaining participants are two previous winners in Daisuke Sasaki and Konosuke Takeshita, as well as two men who’ve yet to win the field; Kazusada Higuchi & Yuji Hino.
This marks Higuchi’s seventh straight year entering King of DDT and has twice before made it to the semi-finals of the tournament, but never to the finals. This is Hino’s first time entering the field. 2021’s tournament marks Takeshita’s sixth and Sasaki’s eleventh attempt at going the distance.
We are guaranteed one half of the final to be comprised of a competitor who’s never made all the way before. If it were to come down to Takeshita and Higuchi, the pair met in last year’s semi-finals and it was Higuchi who was victorious on that occasion. Will history repeat itself?
Sasaki’s route to the semi-finals led him through Jun Akiyama, the reigning KO-D Openweight champion, so win, lose, or draw here for Sasaki you would think a title shot would be in his future against Akiyama. This was only the third singles loss for Akiyama since coming to DDT full time in May 2020. Notably, one of the other two was to another semi-finalist in Higuchi.
The prize for the winner is a year’s supply of the energy drink BLACK OUT (who are sponsoring the tournament) and a cash prize of one million yen.
The winner also traditionally goes on to challenge for the KO-D Openweight title at DDT’s Peter Pan show, although last year this was pushed back to Ultimate Party.
It remains to be seen if/when the winner of the tournament will receive a chance to challenge for DDT’s top title.
The prestigious tournament has also been won by wrestling luminaries Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi.
Full Card
KO-D 8-Man Tag Team Titles
Sanshiro Takagi, Yukio Naya, Chikara & Nabe Yakan (c) vs Yoshiaki Yatsu, Akito, Hiroshi Yamato & Keigo Nakamura
King Of DDT 2021 – Semi Final
Daisuke Sasaki vs Konosuke Takeshita
King Of DDT 2021 – Semi Final
Kazusada Higuchi vs Yuji Hino
Chris Brookes & Antonio Honda Vs Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai vs Danshoku Dieno & Yuki Iino Vs Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku
Tetsuya Endo, Soma Takao, Mad Paulie & Nobuhiro Shimatani Vs HARASHIMA, Toru Owashi, Naomi Yoshimura & Kazuki Hirata
Jun Akiyama, Makoto Oishi & Hideki Okatani vs Yuki Ueno, Shunma Katsumata & MAO
King Of DDT 2021 – Final
X vs X
King of DDT 2021 FINAL!! is streaming live at 3.30am BST on WrestleUniverse on 4/7/2021