Chris Brookes Chooses Saki Akai for His Next Title Defense

With her retirement coming up in November, Saki Akai will finally challenge for the KO-D Openweight Championship

By: James Carlin

DDT’s BIG BANG show was worthy of its name, and its main event of Shigehiro Irie trying to take the gold off of Chris Brookes certainly lived up to expectations.

Although another challenger would’ve soon arrived to Brookes and his KO-D belt, the champion elected to nominate one himself – choosing Saki Akai.

Akai came to the ring, stating that just because she’s retiring, it doesn’t mean she plans on being just another notch on Brookes’ titles, believing that the champion is downplaying her. (Credit: DDT Pro-Wrestling)

Chris: Sorry my Japanese is a little foggy but I won! Who is my next challenger? I actually have someone in mind!

Saki Akai, get in the ring!#DDTBIGBANG #ddtpro pic.twitter.com/KELC98WR7g

— DDT Pro-Wrestling (English) (@ddtproENG) September 9, 2023

Two years ago, the two had a match-up for the DDT Extreme and DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship at MAX BUMP 2021 with Brookes coming out as the winner. Now, Brookes and Akai will face-off once again for the biggest prize in DDT.

If Akai wins, she will become the second woman to hold the KO-D Openweight Championship after Meiko Satomura in 2018. Akai currently holds the KO-D 6-Man Championships with Hideki Okatani and Yukio Sakaguchi as Eruption, where they won the titles at the same show that Brookes won his KO-D Openweight belt.