Best Of DDT is our new series focusing on one of Japan’s top companies Dramatic Dream Team Pro Wrestling, commonly known as just DDT, the company has a reputation worldwide as a wacky, comedy company but it houses some of the world’s best talents. This edition focuses on Konosuke Takeshita.
Best of DDT looked at a more off the beaten path choice in Akito last time. Though this time there’s someone that’s more than worth discussing. Not just because of the impact they made in DDT in such short order, but also making waves with a European excursion. This person is the leader of ALL OUT, Konosuke Takeshita.
Konosuke Takeshita first debuted in August of 2012. He won the Ironman Heavymetalweight title very shortly after. This drew a few eyes to the young talent. In only helped in 2013 when he won the Tokyo Sports’ Awards Newcomer award. He also formed a tag team with fellow rookie Tetsuya Endo that year. In 2014, the two were brought into a stable lead by Antonio Honda called Happy Motel. From there, Takeshita would go onto not only hold tag team gold, but six-man tag gold as well. Their first reign came from beating the Golden Lovers.
They would hold them until Saitama Super DDT 2015 where they were dethroned by the team of Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi. Takeshita would tag with Sekimoto as part of the winning team of the Shuffle tag tournament. This was a three organization tag tournament DDT ran with K-Dojo and BJW. At that point, he would be one-half of the DDT Tag champions once again with Happy Motel after winning a one-night tournament. They would lose the belts in March of 2016 and not regain them.
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Two months later, Takeshita would win his first KO-D open weight championship defeating Daisuke Sasaki. He would defend the title for three months before losing it to Shiuji Ishikawa. Both of these men were members of the team that ended Happy Motel’s final title reign. Takeshita would win the tag team titles one more time with Mike Bailey, beating the DAMNATION faction to do so.
Happy Motel would disband in 2017 but in it’s place would be a Takeshita-lead faction. Its name is ALL OUT. They made their impact quickly, taking the six-man tag titles from their rivals in DAMNATION. 2017 would also be a hallmark year for Takeshita as he would win his second KO-D Openweight title. This time by defeating the ace in HARASHIMA in a passing of the torch type of match. His place at the top was made even more clear, by holding the belt for over 400 days. He lost it at Max Bump 2018 to Shigehiro Irie.
From there he would pick up the six-man title again. In February 2019 he would defeat DAMNATION leader Daisuke Sasaki to win his third KO-D title. He would go on to lose it in the main event of Coming to America that April, to the man he won it from.
Takeshita would go on to win back that same title from Tetsuya Endo at DDT Wrestle Peter Pan 2019. He would hold it until losing it to Extreme champion HARASHIMA in a title-for-title match in November. Currently, he is one-third of the six-man tag champions as part of the stable he leads. However, the future does look bright for Takeshita.
On the 21st and 22nd of January 2020, he took part in the Schadenfreude and Friends Five and six shows. He took on Kyle Fletcher and was part of a six-man tag match. Most recently on the DDT side of things, he teamed with his ALL OUT companions in a losing effort to the debuting faction known as Eruption. On the 23rd of February, he will be taking on Chris Brookes to crown the first-ever DDT Universal Champion. This match is a rematch of Brookes’ first-ever KO-D Openweight title matches, in which he lost. Between big title matches and tournament wins across the country, Takeshita is being primed to take the place of ace of DDT. With seven years of experience already, the 24-year-old only has upwards to go.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. We provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
