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Fighting For Answers: Takeshi Masada On Challenging For DDT’s KO-D Openweight Title

4 days ago Manuel Ish | MP

Manuel Ish | MP

Fighting For Answers: Takeshi Masada On Challenging For DDT’s KO-D Openweight Title

By: Pep S. Caro

DDT Pro Wrestling presents GRAND FINALE 2025 at Korakuen Hall on December 21.. The 2025 edition of the event includes many title matches. One of the matches confirmed is a showdown between Yuki Ueno (c) and Takeshi Masada for the KO-D Openweight Championship.

I had the opportunity to interview Takeshi Masada, member of Schadenfreude International, before his title match. The topics covered include his beginnings in pro wrestling, DDT, the unit, Kosei Fujita, winning Championships, D Generations Cup, his personal life, and much more.

Monthly Puroresu: This year you celebrated your 3rd anniversary as a professional wrestler. Why did you decide to become a wrestler?

Takeshi Masada: I watched a YouTube clip of Kota Ibushi and that’s why I wanted to become a pro wrestler.

Monthly Puroresu: Do you have any wrestlers you consider your role models or inspirations for your style, whether it’s moves or character?

Takeshi Masada: Most of my style right now comes from Shorinji Kempo. I have been doing that since my school days. I don’t really have anyone in mind so we could say my style it’s mostly original.

Monthly Puroresu: You’re part of DDT, one of the most important organizations in Japan. What does DDT mean to you?

Takeshi Masada: DDT is an enjoyable promotion to me. Beyond that there’s also some strength that lies away for me and beyond what lies beyond the strength is a further enjoyment of what wrestling can be.

Monthly Puroresu: You’re part of the Schadenfreude International unit. What does this unit mean to you? What’s the relationship like between the members?

Takeshi Masada: Amongst all the factions in the deep of pro wrestling Schadenfreude International is probably the one with the most freedom. Obviously, we could say that Chris is the most important member. I’ve learned so much from him. I learned about how to carry my strength in the ring. And from Anton, I’ve learned more about the mental aspects of how to carry myself in the ring. Masa Takanashi is out right now but I learned the skills and techniques that I can use when I’m in the ring.

Monthly Puroresu: You won the 2023 D Generations Cup. Another important achievement in your career. What did winning the tournament mean to you? Which match do you consider the most difficult for you?

Takeshi Masada: The most difficult match for me was the first match against Keigo Nakamura because when I thought the match was already won, I lost via roll-up. It really affected my mental preparation going into the rest of the tournament. But, winning the D Generations Cup was like, it’s one of the many goals he was hoping to achieve in his career as the first big goal that he managed to achieve.

Monthly Puroresu: You started 2024 by winning the KO-D Ten Man Tag Team Titles with Schadenfreude International. What did winning the Championships mean to you? What were your feelings about this match?

Takeshi Masada: Winning the 10 Men belts really helped us to strengthen the bonds within the unit. We had many defenses and I learned a lot in these defenses because there was a lot of new situations that I was placed in. I really enjoyed my time as 10 Men Champions.

Monthly Puroresu: You were a finalist in the 2025 D Generations Cup. This time you lost to Yuya Koroku. What was your experience like in this year’s tournament? Which match did you consider the most difficult for you?

Takeshi Masada: My most difficult match was the finals match against Koroku because two years ago, I defeated Koroku to win the D Generations Cup. I felt like if I lose here, I felt like my level would go down and people would think I wouldn’t be as good as I was before. So, there was a bit of a challenge for me there.

Now, compared to 2023, in 2023, my goal was just to win the D Generations Cup and get the trip to America and everything. In 2025, my goal was to make the whole tournament exciting as best as I could.

Monthly Puroresu: In the summer of 2024, alongside Chris Brookes, you defeated Tetsuya Endo and Yuki Iino to win the KO-D Tag Team Championships. What did winning the Championships mean to you? What were your feelings about this match?

Takeshi Masada: It’s a bit of a regret for me because we won the belt from Burning but immediately lost them before even a single defense. I really felt like we could do more but unfortunately my only memory of that time was just basically winning the belt and dropping the belt.

Monthly Puroresu: We’ve seen you bonding with Kosei Fujita a lot in 2025. It feels similar to what Chris Brookes and Zack Sabre Jr. have. How has it been having Fujita as tag team partner and as a rival?

Takeshi Masada: First of all, I would like to make clear that I believe that Fujita and I are friends, okay? I don’t know if Fujita feels that way. We’ve teamed two times; we’ve wrestled against each other one time. So, as a tag partner, Fujita is a very reliable partner and I would love to have more opportunities to team with him again. As an opponent, I feel there’s a difference in our levels right now.

This is the one thing I want to do most, have a singles match against him.

Monthly Puroresu: In September, you lost to Minoru Suzuki in a match for the DDT Universal Championship. What were your feelings about this match? What are your impressions of Suzuki as a competitor?

Takeshi Masada: When I started watching Minoru Suzuki as a wrestler, he was already the King of Wrestling as he’s always been saying so it was an honor to face Suzuki-san. I felt like throughout fighting Suzuki-san that I had to carry a sense of responsibility for the comments I’ve been saying before my matches and I felt like that was the biggest learning point of the entire series against him.

Monthly Puroresu: At Ultimate Party 2024, you lost to Yuki Ueno. What were your feelings about this match? What are your impressions of Ueno as a competitor?

Takeshi Masada: The match last year we didn’t had belts on the line, it was purely a singles match. So, I was wondering why was I chosen to be in that singles match. So throughout the match I felt like I understood what I lacked as a wrestler at the moment. Things like how I wanted to carry myself as a wrestler. And that was the the thing I learned facing Ueno-san. Then as a wrestler, he’s a proper champion and as a proper human being. And I feel like Ueno is pretty smart, well he’s a little bit stupid too. Right now, I’m trying my best to understand what Ueno-san is trying to tell me. And that’s basically my goal right now.

Monthly Puroresu: Fate is interesting because almost exactly one year later you will face each other again, but this time for the KO-D Openweight Championship. The event is RING FINALE 2025 on December 21st at Korakuen Hall. How have you been preparing for this match? What are your expectations?

Takeshi Masada: One of the key points is the top belt, the KO-D Openweight title is on the line. When I challenged Ueno-san at Korakuen Hall, he asked me, “why would you want to challenge for the KO-D belt? What’s the reason? What do you want to do as champion?” I couldn’t really answer Ueno-san at that point of time, as you can see. So right now, I’m still a little confused. I’m not really sure how to answer Ueno-san properly. But of course, one of the expectations during this match is to see how I fight and how I get the answer to Ueno-san once the match is over.

Monthly Puroresu: DDT has toured the United States in recent years, and you’ve participated in some of them. What was your experience like on these American tours? Would you like to participate in the next tour?

Takeshi Masada: I took part for the first time in 2020. It was my first time there and it was a very enjoyable experience. Practically everybody there was new for me. So it was basically a hello for the first time to a lot of the people there. I was very happy to be part of the WrestleMania weekend when there were so many shows and you can probably see the same guys and the same goes on different shows, but like they do many different things, it’s an exciting time. I really enjoyed myself being there.

Monthly Puroresu: We’ve seen several DDT wrestlers compete overseas. You were in the Philippines this year. How was the experience?

Takeshi Masada: I would love to go back again, because this year I didn’t attend. There wasn’t an American tour for me, but I went to the Philippines. The vibes in America is in one way, the vibes in the Philippines are in a different way. I would love to travel overseas again.

Monthly Puroresu: Are there any other countries where you’d like to compete?

Takeshi Masada: I thought the wrestlers in the Philippines were all very unique people. It’s kind of like DDT where there’s a lot of interesting guys and girls in the promotion. So my match was unique, I can only win the match if I kiss my opponent. I thought it was a very creative ruleset, and it was a very enjoyable experience. Where to go next? Not just for wrestling, but for my own personal holidays, I want to go to Thailand.

Monthly Puroresu: If you could choose one opponent from Japan and one from outside Japan that you haven’t faced yet, who would you choose to face in a singles match?

Takeshi Masada: Obviously Nick Wayne. We were tag team partners in Japan and America so next time I will love to face Nick Wayne as an opponent in a singles match.

I’m so focused on the title match, I can’t really pick up a name. But the first names that comes to my head it’s Fujita.

Monthly Puroresu: We’d like to learn a little more about you. Could you tell us about your hobbies?

Takeshi Masada: I don’t really have a hobby per se but I like to stare at the sky at night.

Monthly Puroresu: Also, could you tell us about a typical day in your life?

Takeshi Masada: I wake up in the morning. The first thing I do is clean the house. Make sure everything is nice and tidy. Then, I go to the gym. I come back home. I love to watch Japanese comedy shows on TV, the Japanese style comedy TV shows. And then once I get to the evening, I like to look at the night sky. And I tryi to see if there’s any UFOs flying in the sky.

Monthly Puroresu: Thank you for participating in this interview. To conclude, do you have a message for your fans and DDT fans around the world?

Takeshi Masada: There’s a big title match coming up on December 21st. It’s the biggest title match of my career, so please give me your support. And most importantly, personal message, if you guys know of a way to find UFOs, please hit me up, I want to know!

DDT Pro Wrestling presents RING FINALE 2025 this December 21 at Korakuen Hall. You can watch the stream of the show live on Wrestle UNIVERSE.

We would like to thank Manuel Ish for the Art Direction, Ash Mann for the live interpretation and the DDT Pro Wrestling team for all the facilities provided to conduct this interview.

Date:

December 19, 2025

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