CyberFight Festival 2022

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various wrestlers from DDT, NOAH, TJPW and Ganbare

## Information

### Promotion

DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT)
Ganbare☆Puroresu (Ganbare Pro)
Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah)
Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW)

### City

Saitama, Japan

**CyberFight Festival 2022** was a major professional wrestling supercard show promoted by CyberFight's brands DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT), Ganbare☆Puroresu (Ganbare Pro), Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW). The event took place on June 12, 2022, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. This was the second CyberFight Festival event.

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the event had some restrictions in attendance, following the declaration of the State of Emergency in Japan. The event will air live on CyberFight's streaming service Wrestle Universe as a pay-per-view (PPV). The events featured various championship matches, which they were booked as "supercards", while also putting together combinations of wrestlers from the various brands promotions that fans would normally not see.

## Production

### Background

From 2017 until 2020, internet advertising company CyberAgent aquired both DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) and Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH), following the surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in Japan.Shortly after, CyberAgent created an internet streaming service for their umbrella of promotions the Wrestle Universe, following NOAH's inclusion in the DDT Universe, leading to the creation of the Wrestle Universe In July, all promotions under CyberAgent merged into a new company, "CyberFight", with all brands operating seperately within CyberFight similar to WWE's brand extension. Since 2021, CyberFight began annually producing supershows in June, one of the brand's premier annual events.

On January 11, 2022, CyberFight president Sanshiro Takagi, CyberFight's executive vice-presidents Akito and Naomichi Marufuji, Ganbare☆Puroresu representitive Ken Ohka and Tokyo Joshi-Pro Wrestling representive Tetsuya Koda held a press conference, announcing that the four brands would be coming together to promote a second CyberFight Festival event on June 12 at the Saitama Super Arena, which would become an annual pay-per-view (PPV) held by CyberFight. On April 30 at Majestic, it was announced that former WWE and Impact Wrestling wrestler and Hall of Famer, Rob Van Dam would make his debut for the promotion at the event. On June 2, it was announced that Naomichi Marufuji would be forced to miss the event, due to a knee injury, leading him to be replaced by Katsuhiko Nakajima.

#### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, other wrestling promotions began to cancel or postpone their shows in an attempt to prevent further spreading of the COVID-19 virus. At the end of February, DDT began holding shows with no audience and only essential staff present. DDT's sister promotion Pro Wrestling Noah began holding shows behind closed doors in an empty TV studio under NOAH TV name, with the shows being streamed in the DDT Universe. This led to all DDT doing the same in May, with all programming being relocated to the DDT TV Show Studio, a feat also replicated by Ganbare☆Puroresu and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. Meanwhile, in April, DDT announced that the 2020 Wrestle Peter Pan, which was supposed to be held at the Saitama Super Arena would be postponed, due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, following Japan's declaration of State of Emergency. On May 16, it was announced that the event would be rescheduled to take place on June 6 and June 7, with the event being moved to the DDT TV Show Studio in Tokyo, without an audience and the event. Six months later, Noah announced that they would promote the Destination 2021 at the Nippon Budokan on February 12, 2021, marking the return of the promotion to the arena for the first time in eleven years. However, the plans for the return to the venue were almost derailed, after Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared in January 2021, the state of emergency following a rise of record number of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo and across the country, prompting CyberFight's Executive Vice-President Naomichi Marufuji revealing that he pondered cancelling the event, but instead he announced that the event would be held in a two-part system, with the increasing of the number of matches, with non-title matches being on the first part, and the title matches, with the aim of accelerating the start time of each match and to finish the event as earliest as possible, due to restrictions imposed by the State of Emergency in Japan.

### Storylines

CyberFight Festival 2022 featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

In the GHC Heavyweight Championship match, Go Shiozaki will make his first title defense against New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Satoshi Kojima. On April 30 at Majestic, Kojima made his return to Pro Wrestling NOAH after six-years, being revealed as Naomichi Marufuji mystery partner in a tag team match. Later that night, after Go Shiozaki defeated Kaito Kiyomiya to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the record breaking fifth time, Kojima challenged Shiozaki to a title match, which he accepted. Later that day, NOAH officially announced the title match. In their pre-match, on May 4, Kojima scored a direct pinfall over Shiozaki, during a six-man tag team match. Shiozaki got his revenge on May 21, pinning Kojima, during a six-man tag team match.

On May 1, during DDT's Mega Max Bump, Pro Wrestling NOAH's Kenoh made his return to DDT Pro-Wrestling, calling "DDT an arts and crafts" show, before challenging DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi to a match at CyberFight Festival. However, Daisuke Sasaki confronted Kenoh, challenging him to a match, which he accepted. Later that day, their match was made official. On May 10 at a press conference, after being infuriated with NOAH being ignored in the Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine, while DDT, TJPW and Ganbare☆Pro received a mention, Kenoh attacked Sasaki, before kicking his head after setting his boot on fire. On May 30, Sasaki and his Damnation T.A stablemates MJ Paul and KANON, represented DDT making their debuts in Pro Wrestling NOAH, facing Kenoh and his KONGOH stablemates Hajime Ohara and Hi69 in a winning effort. Following a post-match brawl, Sasaki attacked Kenoh with a stun gun. On June 2, at a press conference, Kenoh asked for his match with Sasaki to be turned into a no disqualification match.