{"id":141832,"date":"2025-09-12T10:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=141832"},"modified":"2025-09-12T10:38:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:38:14","slug":"yoshihiko-to-challenge-for-ko-d-openweight-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/09\/12\/yoshihiko-to-challenge-for-ko-d-openweight-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoshihiko to Challenge For KO-D Openweight Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Newly minted KO-D Openweight champion Kazuki Hirata has nominated his first challenger. He will face the inflatable doll Yoshihiko at Dramatic Infinity 2025 on September 28.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At DDT\u2019s The Fighting Beer Garden 2025 in Shinjuku Extra Innings show on September 12, Yoshihiko sent a strong message to the champion. He cost him the Enter The Sandman five-way match by making a surprise appearance, inserting himself into the match and causing Hirata to lose by pinfall to Antonio Honda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hirata was on a roll prior to Yoshihiko\u2019s interruption, and it looked like he was on his way to a win. He even fended off two holders of the Right to Challenge arm sleeves in Akito and Yukio Naya with the help of his masked bodyguard and Danshoku Dieno when they tried to take advantage of all the mayhem happening in the main event to win the KO-D Openweight title.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the match, Hirata took the microphone and addressed Yoshihiko, saying that he was waiting for him and he wants to wrestle him for the title. He added that the most fitting opponent to challenge him is not a person, but him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two have faced each other in three singles matches, which Yoshihiko all won. Their previous encounter was at DDT Goes Philadelphia from April last year.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\uff0f<br \/>\n\ud83d\udce2NEWS!<br \/>\n\uff3c<\/p>\n<p>Hirata chooses his first challenger&#8230;his forever rival&#8230;.Yoshihiko!<\/p>\n<p>DRAMATIC INFINITY 2025<br \/>\n\ud83d\udcc5 September 28 Starts 11:00<br \/>\n\ud83c\udfe2 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc51KO-D Openweight Championship bout<br \/>\nKazuki Hirata (c.) vs Yoshihiko<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ddtpro?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ddtpro<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6ahYTJrQBD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6ahYTJrQBD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DDT Pro-Wrestling (English) (@ddtproENG) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ddtproENG\/status\/1966472490097758373?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hirata won the KO-D Openweight Championship at day two of Wrestle Peter Pan last August 31 by using his Right to Challenge arm sleeve on then champion Yuki Ueno, who had just defeated former champion Kazusada Higuchi in the main event. It was his biggest win in his 15-year career, holding DDT&#8217;s biggest prize for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other news, the stipulation for the DDT Extreme Championship bout between the champion To-y and Ilusion on September 14 has also been decided prior to the show. It will be a \u201cStop the Annoying Streamer\u201d match wherein both of them will stream themselves on Wrestle Universe via Universe Cast during the match, with the winner being decided by pinning or submitting your opponent on their live stream or turning their live stream off.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_141845\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-141845\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-141845 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/GzqTzyrW0AAVgav-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of Kazuki Hirata, the DDT Pro-Wrestling champion Yoshihiko will challenge.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/GzqTzyrW0AAVgav-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/GzqTzyrW0AAVgav-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/GzqTzyrW0AAVgav-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/GzqTzyrW0AAVgav-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/GzqTzyrW0AAVgav.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-141845\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: X (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/parakissk\/status\/1962043200610169009\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@parakissk<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The show where the title match is set to take place titled \u201cSumire September Love 2025\u201d will be taped and released on <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestle-universe.com\/en\/videos\/ndiTZwSdSd3ftHL2f9v5Lg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wrestle Universe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on September 18.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daisuke Sasaki also surprised everyone and made a couple of announcements as well. The leader of Damnation T.A. suffered a rib injury during the closing moments of their KO-D Tag Team title match against The Apex at day one of Wrestle Peter Pan last August 30.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He announced that he is cleared to wrestle on his 20th anniversary show CHARISMANIAxMANIAxMANIA on October 2 and that his stablemate Hideki Okatani will face \u201cCrazy Monkey\u201d Jun Kasai on the show.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>More from LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Header Photo \u2013 DDT Pro-Wrestling \u2013 Stay<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/a> 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, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can watch Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT, TJPW, and more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ddtpro.com\/universe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s2\">Wrestle Universe.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newly minted KO-D Openweight champion Kazuki Hirata has nominated his first challenger. He will face the inflatable doll Yoshihiko at Dramatic Infinity 2025 on September 28. At DDT\u2019s The Fighting Beer Garden 2025 in Shinjuku Extra Innings show on September 12, Yoshihiko sent a strong message to the champion. He cost him the Enter The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5576,"featured_media":141844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6505,13,12,2192],"tags":[6828,6457],"class_list":["post-141832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ddt-pro","category-international","category-news","category-wrestling","tag-kazuki-hirata","tag-yoshihiko"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141846,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141832\/revisions\/141846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}