CyberFight Festival 2021

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

### Tagline(s)

"CyberFight presents Pro-Wrestling Festival" (Japanese: CyberFightが贈る プロレス・フェス, Hepburn: *CyberFight ga okuru Puroresu Fesu*)

## Information

### Promotion

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

### City

Saitama, Japan

**CyberFight Festival 2021** 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 6, 2021, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. This was the first 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 aired 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.

As a result, the event was main evented by Keiji Mutoh defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against his M's Alliance stablemate Naomichi Marufuji . Another high-profile title matches scheduled for the show featured Jun Akiyama defending the KO-D Openweight Championship against HARASHIMA and Miyu Yamashita defending the Princess of Princess Championship against Yuka Sakazaki.

## Production

### Background

On February 25, 2021, 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 event on June 6 at the Saitama Super Arena, with the tree main championships of CyberFight, DDT's KO-D Openweight Championship, NOAH's GHC Heavyweight Championship, Tokyo Joshi's Princess of Princess Championship being defended at the event.

Following the surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in Japan in 2017, on September 1, 2017, internet advertising company CyberAgent purchased all shares of DDT Pro-Wrestling from Sanshiro Takagi. On January 28, 2020, *Tokyo Sports* reported that LIDET Entertainment had sold all shares of Pro Wrestling NOAH to CyberAgent Inc., becoming one of its subsidiaries alongside DDT Pro-Wrestling. Negotiations between Noah Global Entertainment's President Narihiro Takeda, and CyberAgent, began in November 2019, due to Noah's financial struggles, with the deal taking took one month to complete the deal. The following day, Noah alongside DDT's president Sanshiro Takagi formally announced the acquisition. In March, Noah began streaming their events on DDT's internet streaming service DDT Universe, leading to the creation of the Wrestle Universe in May, which included Noah becoming CyberAgent's new streaming service. On July 27, during a press conference, it was announced that Noah and DDT alongside DDT's sub-brands Ganbare☆Wrestling and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling would be merging into a new company, "CyberFight", with all brands operating seperately within CyberFight similar to WWE's brand extension. Takagi also established a plan to overtake New Japan Pro-Wrestling as the largest promotion in Japan, which would include holding a show at the *Tokyo Dome*. On February 24, CyberFight held a press conference, to announce a partial match card for the event.

On April 26, CyberFight annoounced more matches for the event, which would include a Battle Royal featuring wrestlers from DDT and NOAH, with the winner receiving a "Victory Award" from CyberFight. CyberFight also announced that the match would take part in the pre-show, while also being sponsored by Ganbare☆Puroresu.

#### 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☆Wrestling 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.

On June 2, it was announced that Yasutaka Yano and YO-HEY would be pulled of the event, after entering in contact with a wrestler who had tested positive for COVID-19, leading to some changes in the match card.

### Storylines

CyberFight Festival 2021 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 KO-D Openweight Championship match, Jun Akiyama made his third title defense against HARASHIMA. On April 11, after Akiyama made his second title defense against Danshoku Dino, he called out HARASHIMA nominating him as his next challenger, before forcing DDT Assistant Producer Hisaya Imabayashi to book the match for the event. Akiyama would also challenge HARASHIMA and his partner Yuji Okabayashi, who had recently won the KO-D Tag Team Championship to a title match, with his Junretsu stablemate Makoto Oishi being his partner. On April 19, HARASHIMA and Okabayashi defeated Akiyama and Oishi to retain the KO-D Tag Team Championship.

In the GHC Heavyweight Championship match, Keiji Mutoh made his third title defense against his M's Alliance stablemate Naomichi Marufuji. On April 29 at NOAH: The Glory, after Mutoh successfully defended his title against Masa Kitamiya, Marufuji left commentary area and got in the ring to challenge Mutoh to a title match. Mutoh, who had ignored his last two challengers, responded by accepting the title match at CyberFight Festival. In the built-up to their match, on May 31, Mutoh submitted Marufuji, after both faced each other in a tag team match.

In the Princess of Princess Championship match, Miyu Yamashita made her first title defense against Yuka Sakazaki. In April, Yuka Sakazaki announced that she wanted to regain the Princess of Princess Championship, after not being satisfied that her second reign was partially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mizuki and Shoko Nakajima also wanted to win the title for their own reasons, leading to a three-way match between Mizuki, Nakajima and Sakazaki on May 4, which Sakazaki won, becoming the next challenger for the title. Later that night, Miyu Yamashita defeated Rika Tatsumi to win the Princess of Princess Championship for the third time. Following the match, Yamashita invited Yuka Sakazaki into the ring to confirm their title match for the Princess of Princess Championship at CyberFight Festival, a match which Sakazaki stated that it was to determine the strongest wrestler in Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling.

On February 24, CyberFight announced a partial match card for the event, which included Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura facing Konosuke Takeshita and Yuki Ueno. Kiyomiya and Inamura made an appearance for DDT on April 15, watching Ueno's match at ringside, before Ueno called them out and confronting them. Inamura would be disappointed after Takeshita wasn’t with them. On May 3, Takeshita appeared on Noah event, confronting Kaito Kiyomiya following his match, proclaiming that he should stop sulking, and show an intense fight, which he had not seen for a while. Leading to the event, Kiyomiya began showing a more agressive attitude, following his recent losses at the end of May.

On April 26, it was announced that Yoshiaki Yatsu would be taking part in the Battle Royal for the pre-show, while also having a match before the Battle Royal, before beating up Ken Ohka with some wrestling moves during a press conference. In April 2019, Yatsu began working for DDT during the build up to the Tokyo Olympics. Few months later, Yatsu had to get his right foot amputated because of issues with diabetes. In March 2020 Yatsu announced his plans to come back to wrestling using a prosthetic footwith his scheduled return in June for the 2020 Wrestle Peter Pan, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 2, it was announced that Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Muhammad Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi from Pro Wrestling Noah were announced to take part of the Battle Royal.

On April 18, Noah announced that KONGOH members Kenoh, Haoh, Manabu Soya and Tadasuke had tested positive for COVID-19, but only Kenoh recovered on May 2. Meanwhile on Apri 22, Kenoh had announced that he would refuse to take part at CyberFight Festival. On May 4, at DDT's Max Bump, Kenoh made an appearance in DDT to offer an apology to DDT and Noah's President Sanshiro Takagi after testing positive for the COVID-19. Afterwards, Takagi lay him out with a *Stunner* and ordered KONGOH to participate at CyberFight Festival. Kenoh refused to take part of the event until Yukio Sakaguchi confronted him, leading Kenoh to accept. Takagi then annnounced a match between DDT and KONGOH at CyberFight Festival. The match was made official on May 6. On May 31, following a GHC Tag Team Championship title defense, Masa Kitamiya turned on Katsuhiko Nakajima, leaving KONGOH due to his hatred towards Nakajima. This led to on June 2, being announced that the match would be reduced with Hideki Okatani being removed from the match.

On May 2, Full Throttle (Hajime Ohara, Seiki Yoshioka and YO-HEY) was defeated by Stinger (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa and Yuya Susumu) in a six-man tag team match. Afterwards, Yoshioka turned on Ohara to join Stinger. Then YO-HEY decided to leave the stable in order to join Nosawa Rongai's group, effectively disbanding the stable. Afterwards, Ohara alligned himself with Momo no Seishun's Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada. The match was made official on May 6.

On May 9, Super Sasadango Machine complained to Danshoku Dino about both of them not being booked to take part at CyberFight Festival and Sasadango wanted to challenge a wreslter from the Pro Wrestling Noah roster to a match, but Dino tried to stop him. Afterwards, Sadadango challegend Pro Wrestling Noah's Takashi Sugiura to a tag team match, where Sasadango would team with Danshoku Dino, who was not excited with the idea of facing him. On May 12, it was announced that Dino and Sasadango would face two Sugiura-gun members at CyberFight Festival. Over the following weeks, Sasadango began trying to enter in Noah events only to be barred by Noah's personal. On May 31, Sasadango managed to appear in a Noah event alongside Dino, challenging Sugiura and his Sugiura-gun stablemate Kazushi Sakuraba to a match for their personal Saku Sugi Tag Team Championship belts. Sugiura agreed to a match but not for the title belts.

## Event

**Other on-screen personnel**

### Pre-show

The pre-show featured three matches, the first was contested by Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling's Arisu Endo, Haruna Neko, Mirai Maiumi, Moka Miyamoto and Suzume taking on Pom Harajuku, Kaya Toribami, Mahiro Kiryu, Nao Kakuta and Raku. The saw Maiumi hit Kiryu with a lariat, pinning her for the win.

The second saw the Starting Battle Royal, Yoshiaki Yatsu, who made his return, was the first entrant, the began the match, with new wrestlers entering each minute. Yuna Manase was the first to be eliminated when Yuji Hino threw them over the top rope. Wrestlers worked to eliminate each other. In the end, Antonio Honda eliminated Masao Inoue by pinning him with an Horizontal Cradle for the win.

The third saw Ganbare☆Puroresu's Kouki Iwasaki, Shuichiro Katsumura and Yumehito Imanari taking on Keisuke Ishii, Ken Ohka and Shota. In the end, Iwasaki pinned Shota with the Vertical Drop Reverse DDT for the win. After the match, Ken Ohka closed the pre-show by saying "We are Ganbare☆Puroresu!".

### Preliminary matches

The first match of the show saw Pro Wrestling Noah's Junta Miyawaki and Kinya Okada taking on Toui Kojima and Yuki Iino. After a back and fourth match, Miyawaki trapped Kojima on the *Cross Armbreaker*, forcing him to tap for the win.

The second match saw a three-way match featuring Tokyo Joshi's Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima taking on Miu Watanabe and Rika Tatsumi, and Nodoka Tenma and Yuki Aino. Misao and Nakajima won the match after Nakajima pinned Aino with the *Diving Senton*. After the match, Tatsumi argued that her team still won because she and Watanabe did not get pinned, while Tenma and Yuki Aino said they had fun despite Aino being pinned.

The third match saw NOAH's Sugiura-gun (Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba) taking on DDT Pro-Wrestling's Danshoku Dino and Super Sasadango Machine. The match ended with Sugiura wearing pantyhose and hitting Machine with the Olympic Slam for the win. After the match Sugiura apologized to the crowd for the match being bad and kept the pantyhose. In the fourth match, Noah's Masa Kitamiya took on DDT's Hideki Okatani. The match ended shortly after Kitamiya hit Okatani with a *Lariat*, following the *Prison Lock*, forcing him to submit for the win.

The fifth match saw, Tokyo Joshi's Maki Itoh, Marika Kobashi and Yuki Kamifuku taking on Hikari Noa, Mizuki and Yuki Arai. In the end, Itoh submitted Arai with the Itoh Punish for the win. After the match, Jurina Matsui cheered her on Arai while Arai was being helped by her her partners.

The sixth match saw NOAH's Momo no Seishun (Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada) and Hajime Ohara taking on Stinger (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa and Seiki Yoshioka). The end of the match saw Harada hitting the *Katayama German Suplex* on Yoshioka for the win. After the match, on backstage Harada told along with Junta Miyawaki, they would create the Noah Juniors and change the Junior Heavyweight divsion in NOAH.

The seventh match saw DDT's DAMNATION (Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo and Soma Takao) taking on Chris Brookes, MAO and Shunma Katsumata. During the match, Mad Paulie got involved, the end saw Endo submitting MAO with the *Crossover Facelock* for the win.

The eighth match saw DDT's Akito, Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura, Sanshiro Takagi, Yukio Naya and Yukio Sakaguchi taking on NOAH's KONGOH (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh and Tadasuke). In the end, Nakajima continued to beat Takagi when Sakaguchi and Higuchi came in to rescue. Sakaguchi hit Kenoh with the God’s Right Knee. followed by Yoshihiko trapping Kenoh in the Sleeper Hold while holding him. Takagi pinned Haoh with the Sit Down Himawari Bomb for the win. After the match, Kenoh left in anger. Takagi told Kenoh that he hates him, despite having a good match. Although he will never force him to change his style and stated his goal on becoming the biggest pro wrestling promotion in the wrestling industry. Kenoh later parodied the ever sulking of Kaito Kiyomiya by posting on Twitter that he didn't understand wrestling anymore, only to be trolled by Takashi Sugiura.

The nineth match saw Noah's Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura taking on DDT's Konosuke Takeshita and Yuki Ueno. The end saw, Ueno pinning Kiyomiya with the BME for the win. After the match, Kiyomiya insisted that his losing streak had reached a boling point for him.

### Triple Main Event 1

CyberFight Festival 2021 featured three main event matches. In the first triple main event, Miyu Yamashita defended the Princess of Princess Championship against Yuka Sakazaki. During the match, Sakazaki attempted the Magical Girl 450 Splash but missed it, Yamashita hit the Skull Kick but was tired to go for the pin, allowing Sakazaki to recover and getting a near-fall after Sakazaki got into the ropes. Yamashita pretended to hit the Crash Rabbit Heat to make Sakazaki flinch, then she turned herself to hit hit the move in another angle. In the end, Yamashita then hit the Crash Rabbit Heat for the win to retain the title. After the win, Yamashita tried to talk with Sakazaki. A furstrated Sakazaki slapped Yamashita and left the ring, at backstage, Yamashita told she wants to push TJPW further and aim for their own event at the Ryogoku Kokugikan.

### Triple Main Event 2

In the second triple main event, Jun Akiyama defended the KO-D Openweight Championship against HARASHIMA. During the match, HARASHIMA attempted the *Swan Dive Somato*, only to Akiyama roll through and hit HARASHIMA with a knee kick, followed by the *Wrist Clutch Exploder* for the near-fall. In the end, Akiyama trapped HARASHIMA with the *Front Neck Lock*, forcing the referee to stop match and award the victory to Akiyama, thus retaining the title. After the match, on backstage Akiyama told he had defeated all of DDT’s icons and that the one next in line would be the winner of the King of DDT. However, Akiyama promised if he wins the tournament, that he would nominate Sanshiro Takagi to see which of them is stronger in their 50s.

### Triple Main Event 3

In the third triple main event, Keiji Mutoh defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against his M's Alliance stablemate Naomichi Marufuji, in what it was named the "Genius Showdown". Before the match, it was shown a promo of their match. As Marufuji walked, Mutoh and Marufuji had a heated confront. During the match both Marufuji and Mutoh had a technical showdown with Kenta Kobashi telling Marufuji had the "the weight of NOAH on his back". Mutoh hit three consecutive *Shining Wizard*s for a near-fall, Marufuji hit the *Shiranui* for another near-fall, Mutoh hit the *Moonsault* for another near-fall. In the end, both men exausted, Marufuji hit a serie of knee strikes and kicks, Marufuji then hit *Tiger King Zero* to win the match and become the new champion, making him tying Takashi Sugiura and Go Shiozaki's record reign of four title wins. After the match, Mutoh and Marufuji did the M's Alliance pose, and Mutoh left the ring, Marufuji also thanked Mutoh to joining NOAH and his contributions in the promotion.

Afterwards, DDT, NOAH, Ganbare and TJPW's roster entered the ring to thank the fans for coming to see them. Three main champions, Marufuji, Akiyama and Yamashita, steped forward and Marfufuji told that the CyberFight promotions will make the everyone with energy and the power of pro wrestling. Akiyama, thanked everyone in the arena and those watching the event on Wrestle Universe in in the midst of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, while Yamashita pointed out to be largest performance of TJPW in front of a bigger crowd, Yamashita said to be certain of the people who saw TJPW for the first time and was happy if any of them will come around to see more. Meanwhile Shanshiro Takagi hinted that it could be a once a year thing. Afterwards, all wrestlers bowed and left the arena. Marufuji backstage, said he could never surpass him and wanted to keep working hard with him.