Konosuke Takeshita’s first match in DDT has been confirmed.
It was announced last week that the reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion would make his return to DDT Pro Wrestling and the promotion has now confirmed Takeshita’s first match. The New Japan/AEW star will be teaming with Kaisei Takechi to take on Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada.
He’s still scheduled for the 8th and 9th, though an official match hasn’t been confirmed for either date just yet. Nov. 8th and 9th is two weeks away so it shouldn't be too long before they confirm Takeshita's opponent.
Takeshita has been moving up recently. On October 13th, he shocked the world by defeating Zack Sabre Jr. to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. This comes off the back of winning the G1 Climax, which allowed him to challenge for the prestigious belt at King of Pro-Wrestling. Takeshita was on the verge of winning another belt last weekend at WrestleDream until his partner, Kazuchika Okada, blasted him with the rainmaker. The duo would go on to lose the AEW World Tag Team title match and Takeshita suffered his first loss in nearly two months.
Takeshita isn’t the only familiar face on the Ultimate Party show as former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and Minoru Suzuki are also scheduled to compete at the upcoming event. The main event is KO-D Openweight Championship/DDT Universal Championship double title match. It's a rather stacked card and bringing Takeshita onboard only makes the show even better.
Below is the updated lineup for Ultimate Party:
- Sanshiro Takagi vs. Hinata Kasai
- HARASHIMA, Toru Owashi & Naomi Yoshimura vs. Soma Takao, Shinichiro Kawamatsu & Rukiya
- Hideki Okatani, M.J. Paul, Demus & Ilusion vs. Daichi Sato, Yuki Ishida, Kazuma Sumi & Kumadori
- Tetsuya Endo, HAYATA & Junta Miyawaki v. Jun Akiyama, Shinya Aoki & Yuya Koroku
- DDT Extreme Championship — Five-Way Match: To-y (c) vs. Akito vs. Super Sasadango Machine vs. Kazuki Hirata vs. Antonio Honda
- KO-D Tag Team Championship — Survival Three-Way Match: Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya (c) vs. MAO & KANON (w/ Kimihiro) vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu
- Daisuke Sasaki vs. Danshoku Dieno
- Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Chris Brookes
- Konosuke Takeshita & Kaisei Takechi vs. Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada
- KO-D Openweight Championship/DDT Universal Championship Double Title Match: Yuki Ueno (KO-D Openweight) vs. Minoru Suzuki (DDT Universal)