Yuki Ueno Defends Against MAO and NJPW Stars Set to Compete at DDT Wrestle Peter Pan 2026

By Noah Leatherland

DDT are now on the road to Wrestle Peter Pan in the Ryogoku Kokugikan on August 11th. Yuki Ueno’s main event title defence has been confirmed, as well as some crossover matches with talent from other companies joining the event.

At DDT King of Kings, Ueno successfully retained the KO-D Openweight Championship against the winner of this year’s King of DDT Tournament, Shinya Aoki. Ueno managed to withstand the grappling expertise of Aoki, managing to put his challenger away with a Sleeper Hold of his own. The win marked Ueno’s eighth defence as champion, now approaching a full year as the top champion in DDT. Following the bout, Ueno named who he wanted to face at Wrestle Peter Pan, and chose to test himself against MAO.

Speaking in his post-match comments, Ueno brought up how facing MAO could help in the lofty goal of DDT running the Tokyo Dome:

I’ve been truly happy—both to have put on a pro-wrestling match that only Aoki-san and I could have delivered, and simply to be alive today. I’ll be fighting MAO-chan for the DDT title. With this belt, I can convey to everyone my determination to make it to the Tokyo Dome.

MAO also had chance to speak after the match was made, also with an eye towards the Dome:

Two summers ago, at the main event in Ryogoku, I challenged Ueno on the same card but couldn’t win. To be honest, I’d like to find out who’s stronger now by going head-to-head in a one-on-one match at the main event in Ryogoku. And who knows—if we keep pushing each other to improve, we might just end up at the Tokyo Dome.

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

Elsewhere at DDT King of Kings, more additions were made to the Wrestle Peter Pan card. Kazsuma Sumi has a challenger for the DDT Universal Championship confirmed, and it is an outside force from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Sumi will defend the title against NJPW’s Ryusuke Taguchi.

That is not the only involvement of NJPW talent on DDT Wrestle Peter Pan. Fresh off his run in the Best of the Super Juniors, Daisuke Sasaki has recruited NJPW’s DOUKI to compete in tag action. They will face a duo of Antonio Honda and a yet to be named partner.

There will also be some Dragongate involvement at DDT Wrestle Peter Pan. YAMATO is set to appear at the event, where he will have his first ever singles encounter with Danshoku Dieno.

Matches already announced for DDT Wrestle Peter Pan include the Hinata Kasai first anniversary match, where he will team with his father Jun Kasai, as well as the postponed encounter between Kaisei Takechi and Konosuke Takeshita.

Here are the full results for DDT King of Kings, courtesy of purolove.com:

• Junta Miyawaki & Viento Levante def. Akito & Miles Karu (7:26)
• Yukio Naya & Yuki Ishida def. Soma Takao & Naomi Yoshimura (7:10)
• Jun Akiyama, Rukiya & Masami Inahata def. Minoru Suzuki, Danshoku Dieno & Kazuki Hirata (0:09)
• Jun Akiyama, Rukiya & Masami Inahata def. Minoru Suzuki, Danshoku Dieno & Kazuki Hirata (8:05)
• KANON & Yuki Iino def. Shunma Katsumata & To-y (7:49)
• Takeshi Masada, Yuya Koroku & Daichi Sato def. Kazuma Sumi, Yuni & Kumadori (9:44)
• MAO def. Sanshiro Takagi (12:31)
• Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani, MJ Paul & Ilusion def. Chris Brookes, HARASHIMA, Antonio Honda & Hinata Kasai (10:24)
• KO-D Openweight Title: Yuki Ueno (c) def. Shinya Aoki (21:48)