Participants For KING OF DDT 2026 Revealed

By: Ian McCord

The participants for the KING OF DDT 2026 tournament were announced on March 22nd at DDT’s Judgement 2026 event. The first round of the single elimination tournament will kick off on May 4th in the legendary Korakuen Hall.

This year’s KING OF DDT tournament will have 16 wrestlers competing for a shot to compete for the KO-D Openweight Championship.

Here is the full list of participants for KING OF DDT 2026:

• HARASHIMA
• Danshoku Dieno
• MAO
• Chris Brookes
• Yukio Naya
• KANON
• Takeshi Masada
• Hideki Okatani
• To-y
• Shinya Aoki
• Yuya Koroku
• Daichi Satoh
• Kaisei Takechi
• Junta Miyawaki
• Kazuma Sumi
• Minoru Suzuki

Out of the 16 competitors, there are 4 who will be participating in the tournament for the first time in their careers. Kaisei Takechi, Junta Miyawaki, Kazuma Sumi and Minoru Suzuki were announced as the 4 first time entries for this year’s KING OF DDT.

Along with the 4 first time competitors, 3 KING OF DDT winners will be included in this year’s Tournament. Those past winners include HARASHIMA, Chris Brookes, and MAO.

The inaugural KING OF DDT took place in 2004, won by Poison Sawada JULIE, and most recently in 2025 with Kazusada Higuchi winning the tournament for the 2nd time.

Round 1 of KING OF DDT 2026 kicks off on May 4th in Korakuen Hall with Round 2 taking place on May 9th at Shinjuku FACE. The semifinals and finals of the KING OF DDT 2026 will be decided May 31st back in Korakuen Hall.