MAO Wins KO-D Openweight Championship at DDT Wrestle Peter Pan, Plus More Titles Change Hands

By: Noah Leatherland

DDT Wrestle Peter Pan took place in the Ryogoku Kokugikan, with a stacked card headlined by MAO challenging Yuki Ueno for the KO-D Openweight Championship. On a night fill of title changes, MAO finally managed to capture the one that he has wanted for so long.

As Yuki Ueno’s handpicked opponent, MAO brought his absolute best to the Ryogoku Kokugikan. Ueno matched his effort, with the two going all-out in the main event of DDT’s biggest show of the year. Both reached deep into their playbooks, with MAO taking some ideas from his friend ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey.

The timer had gone past the 30 minute mark by the time the bout was decided. MAO climbed up to the top rope one more time and landed the Cannonball 450 to put Ueno away to finally win the KO-D Openweight Championship.

MAO did not get to celebrate for too long, as Sanshiro Takagi soon appeared. He attacked MAO backstage and dragged him back to the ring. In possession of the Right to Challenge Anywhere, Anytime contract, Takagi redeemed his prize and challenged MAO for his newly won championship. After a whirlwind bout, MAO got his knees up on Takagi diving with a plastic box and rolled up his senior to keep his title.

After finally being able to reach the desk for his post-match comments, MAO shared his joy of finally holding DDT’s top prize:

I even managed to defend my title. I’ve managed to have my name listed alongside Yuki Ueno’s, so I’ve achieved what I’d been working so hard towards—that was my biggest motivation this time. Now that I’ve got the Openweight belt, I feel like I can do anything.

Battered and bruised, Ueno accepted his defeat and looked forward to the future of DDT:

If you call Yuki Ueno the perfect champion, then forget about ‘perfect’ and show me MAO’s DDT.

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

MAO’s big championship win was the biggest on a night full of titles changing hands. In the opening bout, paleyouth lost the KO-D Six Man Tag Team Titles to a Strange Love Connection trio of KANON, Viento Levante and Yukio Naya. Levante scored the pinfall, rolling up Masada to start off Strange Love Connection’s big night. A rematch has already been scheduled, with paleyouth getting a chance to reclaim the gold coming on August 17th.

The DDT Extreme Championship was on the line in a barbed wire deathmatch. Hideki Okatani has wrestled in all kinds of stipulations during this reign, but his challenger Shunma Katsumata did not shy away from the violence. Katsumata embraced the wire so much that the win came from him landing a splash while wrapped in barbed wire.

Right after, the KO-D Tag Team Titles were defended by Chris Brookes and HARASHIMA. They faced off against the technical duo of Shinya Aoki and Junta Miyawaki. The grapplers’ technical prowess led them to victory, with Miyawaki scoring a pin on HARASHIMA with a Sunshine Clutch. The next challengers soon emerged. Jun Akiyama and Rukiya had defeated the father-son duo of Jun and Hinata Kasai earlier in the night, then turned their attention to the tag gold. They will challenge Aoki and Miyawaki on August 30th.

Kazuma Sumi defended the DDT Universal Championship against NJPW’s Ryusuke Taguchi. ‘The Funky Weapon’ proved to be too tough a challenge for Sumi, as the New Japan representative claimed the DDT gold. The belt may not stay in New Japan hands for long, as Daisuke Sasaki made his intentions on the title known. He will challenge Taguchi on August 30th.

In the marquee semi-main event, Konosuke Takeshita took a break from his G1 Climax campaign to face Kaisei Takechi. As this match had to be pushed back because of an illness picked up by Takechi, fans were eager to see the two finally clash. Takechi put up a good fight against The Alpha, proving that he can hang with the very best of them. However, the Raging Fire from Takeshita was enough to keep Takechi down for the three count.

Here are the full results for DDT Wrestle Peter Pan:

• KO-D Six Man Tag Team Titles: KANON, Viento Levante & Yukio Naya def. Daichi Satoh, Takeshi Masada & Yuya Koroku (c) (11:55)
• DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Title Gauntlet Entry Battle Royal: Ilusion def. Akito (c), Fuminori Abe, Masami Inahata, MJ Paul, Naomi Yoshimura, Soma Takao, Super Sasadango Machine, Toru Owashi, Yoshihiko, Yuki Iino, Yuki Ishida and Yuni (18:57)
• Minoru Suzuki & Sanshiro Takagi def. Kazuki Hirata & To-y (10:36)
• Jun Akiyama & Rukiya def. Hinata Kasai & Jun Kasai (11:19)
• DDT Extreme Title Barbed Wire Deathmatch: Shunma Katsumata def. Hideki Okatani (c) (13:52)
• KO-D Tag Team Titles: Junta Miyawaki & Shinya Aoki def. Chris Brookes & HARASHIMA (c) (12:21)
• YAMATO def. Danshoku Dino (12:07)
• Daisuke Sasaki & DOUKI def. Antonio Honda & Tetsuya Endo (16:00)
• DDT Universal Title: Ryusuke Taguchi def. Kazuma Sumi (c) (18:02)
• Konosuke Takeshita def. Kaisei Takechi (17:26)
• KO-D Openweight Title: MAO def. Yuki Ueno (c) (33:47)
• KO-D Openweight Title: MAO (c) def. Sanshiro Takagi (4:29)