Ultimate Party (2023)

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various wrestlers

**Ultimate Party (2023)** was a professional wrestling event promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The event took place on November 12, 2023, in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. This was the third event promoted under the Ultimate Party name. The event aired live on CyberFight's streaming service Wrestle Universe.

An high-profile match scheduled for the show featured Konosuke Takeshita facing All Elite Wrestling (AEW)'s Chris Jericho. The event featured two other title matches with New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Hiromu Takahashi defending the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship against Kazuki Hirata, Matt Cardona defending the DDT Universal Championship MAO and Saki Akai having her retirement match at the event.

## Production

### Background

Usually, DDT holds two major events each year, often in venues such as the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, the Nippon Budokan or the Ota City General Gymnasium.

### Storylines

Ultimate Party 2023 featured ten professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storyline. 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.

On September 24, at Who's Gonna Top? 2023, Chris Brookes successfully defended the KO-D Openweight Championship against Saki Akai. He was then challenged by Yuki Ueno to a title match and immediately accepted the challenge.

Also at the event, after facing MAO in a winning effort, Takeshita revealed that he was going to take part at the Ultimate Party, before introducing his manager Don Callis. Afterwards, in a pre-taped vignette, Chris Jericho, who had been feuding with Takeshita and Callis in All Elite Wrestling, made his debut in DDT, challenging Takeshita to a match at Ultimate Party, which he accepted with Takeshita calling it a "dramatic dream", vowing to defeat him in a DDT ring, promising to destroy everything about Jericho from the "Lionheart" to "Y2J" to "The Painmaker". On November 10, DDT officially announced that Ultimate Party would feature a double main event with the KO-D Openweight and Jericho vs. Takeshita matches.

Shortly after, following his defeat to Takeshita, in a post-match interview, MAO confronted and challenged Matt Cardona to a title match for the DDT Universal Championship, after he had successfully defended the title against Maki Itoh. Cardona accepted his challenge with a handshake, but then attacked MAO with a belt strike from behind.

On August 27, it was announced that New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Hiromu Takahashi would be appearing at Ultimate Party 2023. On September 9 at DDT Big Bang, Kazuki Hirata successfully defended the DDT Extreme Division Championship, while also winning the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship by defeating Naruki Doi. After the match, Takahashi appeared and reminded Hirata of their past confrontations in NJPW's NEVER brand and DDT's Wakate Tsūshin series of events. He then challenged him and the match was made official. However, leading to the title match, Hirata lost the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship to MAO, before on October 4, Hirata regained the title from Takeshi Masada, However, while he was celebrating, he was confronted by Takahashi, who pinned him and won the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship. Hirata then tried to win title back and chased Takahashi around ringside. However, soon after, Takahashi won and lost the title, On November 6, on a Youtube broadcast to decide the rules for their match, Hirata tried to pin Takahashi to win the belt right there and then, but failed, causing Hirata to leave.

On May 24, Saki Akai announced that she would be retiring from professional wrestling at Ultimate Party. On route to her retirement match, Akai alongside her Eruption stablemates Yukio Sakaguchi and Hideki Okatani became double champions, after winning the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship and the AJPW TV 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Akai was trained in the DDT dojo, she made her made her wrestling debut DDT's biggest event Ryōgoku Peter Pan on August 18, 2013, and eventually became one of DDT's established wrestlers.

On October 4, after Soma Takao and Shota won the KO-D Tag Team Championship, reigning KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes wanted to challenge them for a title match at Ultimate Party. However, due to already having to defend the title, Brookes requested a title match for his friends, Masahiro Takanashi and Antonio Honda, which they accepted.

At the event, Tetsuya Endo was confronted with his past when Daisuke Sasaki asked him to join DAMNATION T.A after their match. While Endo was on good terms with Sasaki, he refused to jon the stable because it cannot compare to the original DAMNATION they were both a part of, with Endo suggesting that Sasaki should join Burning instead, setting up a match at Ultimate Party.