Ryōgoku Peter Pan (2014)

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various wrestlers

### Tagline(s)

"Maybe Summer Will Change My Life!" (Japanese: 人生変えちゃう夏かもね!, Hepburn: *Jinsei kaechau natsu kamo ne*)

## Information

### City

Tokyo, Japan

**Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2014** was a professional wrestling event promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The event took place on August 17, 2014, in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The event was the sixth event under the Peter Pan name and the fifth promoted under the Ryōgoku Peter Pan name, which is DDT's biggest annual event and has been called "the largest wrestling show in the Japanese independent circuit".

The event was headlined by HARASHIMA defending the KO-D Openweight Championship against Isami Kodaka and Kenny Omega in a three-way match. Another high-profile match scheduled for the show featured Konosuke Takeshita facing NJPW's Hiroshi Tanahashi as part of a working relationship between DDT and NJPW. The event aired live on Fighting TV Samurai as a pay-per-view (PPV).

The event also featured three other title matches with Danshoku Dino defending the DDT Extreme Division Championship against Muscle Sakai in an Important Something Time Bombing Deathmatch, *Shuten-dōji* (Kudo, Yukio Sakaguchi, and Masa Takanashi) defending the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship against Team Dream Futures (Keisuke Ishii, Shigehiro Irie, and Soma Takao) and Akihiro defending the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship in a Rumble rules match.

## Production

### Background

Since 2009, DDT began annually producing shows in the *Ryōgoku Kokugikan* held in the summer under the name Peter Pan, becoming DDT premier annual event and the biggest event in the independent circuit of Japanese wrestling. Following the financial success of the first and following shows, DDT held a show at the Nippon Budokan, which also ended being a success with DDT selling out 10,124 tickets.

On August 18, 2013, DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi announced that the promotion would run the Peter Pan at the *Ryōgoku Kokugikan* again on August 17, 2014. On June 29, NJPW wrestler Hiroshi Tanahashi announced that he would be appearing at the event, facing Konosuke Takeshita. On July 23, DDT announced that Wrestle-1 wrestler Shuji Kondo would appear at the event to face Kota Ibushi in a singles match.

### Storylines

The Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2014 event featured eleven 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.

The Ryōgoku Peter Pan was main evented by HARASHIMA making his third title defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship against the winner of the 2014 King of DDT Isami Kodaka and Kenny Omega in the first-ever three-way match for the title. On May 25, 2014, HARASHIMA successfully cashed in his Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere contract against Kudo to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the sixth time. On June 29, HARASHIMA successfully defended the KO-D Openweight Championship against Super Sasadango Machine, who cashed in his Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere contract, Kenny Omega announced that he would cash in his Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere contract on July 20 against HARASHIMA. Later that night, Isami Kodaka defeated Kudo in the finals to win the2014 King of DDT and become the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship for thePeter Pan. At the event, on July 20, HARASHIMA faced Kenny Omega for the KO-D Openweight Championship in a draw. Afterwards, HARASHIMA who wasn't satisfied with the result wanted to face Omega again, leading Kodaka to propose a three-way match, marking the first three-way for the title.

Also on July 20, Danshoku Dino, Makoto Oishi, Super Sasadango Machine, and DJ Nira faced Michael Nakazawa, Kazuki Hirata, Hoshitango and Shunma Katsumata. Before the match started, Dino was if he was going to defend the DDT Extreme Division Championship at Peter Pan. After Sasadango got the win for his team, he set up a PowerPoint presentation to challenge Dino to a match for his title at Peter Pan, but Dino refused to say that he wanted to face Muscle Sakai, leading DDT's General Manager Amon Tsurumi to remind Dino that Sakai was retired. Afterwards, Sasadango left, only for him to remove his disguise and reappear as Muscle Sakai to accept Dino's challenge, which was made official by Amon Tsurumi. Before the event on July 20, despite Sakai being retired since October 2010, he returned to the ring in 2013, working under the Super Sasadango Machine gimmick. On August 16, due to Dino holding the DDT Extreme Division Championship, Dino announced that he and Sakai would face each other in an Important Something Blast Deathmatch, in which a blast would happen at ringside after the 10-minute mark.

Also on July 20, Happy Motel (Antonio Honda, Konosuke Takeshita, and Tetsuya Endo) lost the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship to *Shuten-dōji* (Kudo, Yukio Sakaguchi and Masa Takanashi) in a three-way match, also involving Team Dream Futures (Keisuke Ishii, Shigehiro Irie, and Soma Takao). However, since Team Dream Futures were not involved in the result of the match, General Manager Amon Tsurumi announced that *Shuten-dōji* would defend the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship against Team Dream Futures at Peter Pan. Leading to the match, on August 2, *Shuten-dōji'*s Yukio Sakaguchi and Masa Takanashi defeated Team Dream Futures' Keisuke Ishii and Soma Takao. During the match, Takao taunted Sakaguchi and Takanashi by spitting alcohol at them throughout the match.

Billed as "Once in a Lifetime match", on August 18, 2012, at *Budokan Peter Pan**,* Minoru Suzuki defeated Sanshiro Takagi. The rivalry between Takagi and Suzuki reignited on June 29, 2014, during an eight-man elimination match, between Takagi and Michael Nakazawa, which Nakazawa was the sole survivor. After Nakazawa took out both referees of the match, Nakazawa called out the next replacement referee, Minoru Suzuki. DDT General Manager Amon Tsurumi complained about Suzuki’s appearance but immediately backed down when Suzuki looked at him. This led to Suzuki helping Nakazawa to win the match. Afterwards, Nakazawa taunted Takagi, before sarcastically challenging to a match with his partner being Suzuki at Peter Pan. Takagi then announced that he would face them in a Street Wrestling match, with his partner being Jun Kasai. Shortly after, Suzuki began coaching Michael Nakazawa in order for him to become a hybrid fighter, starting to win more matches due to acquiring a new finishing maneuver the *Hybrid Venom Arm Sleeper*. Leading to the match, on July 19, Kasai and Suzuki constructed a special combat bicycle to use against Nakazawa and Suzuki.

At the July 20 event, GENTARO and Yasu Urano defeated MIKAMI and Tomomitsu Matsunaga, after Urano submitted MIKAMI for the victory. Afterwards, GENTARO showed his disappointment towards MIKAMI's recent poor form for submitting to Urano, leading GENTARO questioning if MIKAMI was motivated or was insulted because he himself went through a lot in order to wrestle again due to health problems. Urano told GENTARO to ignore MIKAMI and not worrying bout MIKAMI's decline, due to winning their match against them. This led to GENTARO slapping Urano and agreeing to a match between himself and MIKAMI against Urano and Akito at Peter Pan. Leading to the match, on August 2, MIKAMI faced Urano in a losing effort. Afterwards, despite losing, MIKAMI promised to show a new side of himself at Peter Pan.

On April 19, 2014, at Max Bump, Sanshiro Takagi attempted to retire the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, before it could crown the 1,000th champion, but was knocked out by the creator of the title Poison Sawada Julie with the belt; as Takagi fell with the belt on his chest, the referee counted the pinfall, making the belt itself the champion. Later that night, Jun Akiyama became the new Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion, after pinning the belt during a backstage interview. Afterwards, the title began being defended in All Japan Pro Wrestling, before returning to DDT on May 29, when Akiyama faced Akihiro, another inflatable love doll and the supposed sister of Yoshihiko for the championship. Before the match started, it was revealed that the Research Institute would be the sponsor for the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship battle royal at Peter Pan. On July 15, it was announced that Shiro Koshinaka and Nonoko would be added to the battle royal, leading to nine more participants being added to the match on July 22.

## Event

The first dark match was a Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling exhibition match featuring Kanna, Erin, Chikage Kiba, Yuka Sakazaki, Shoko Nakajima and Miyu Yamashita.

The second dark match was a "DDT vs. Union Pro-Wrestling" eight-man tag team match pitting a team of four DDT wrestlers against four Union Pro wrestlers.

On the main card, MIKAMI teamed up with Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS' GENTARO to face the team of Yasu Urano and Akito.

The next match was the "Souken Group Presents Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship Battle Royale", a Rumble rules match for the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship that saw Akihiro, an inflatable love doll, enter as the champion. LiLiCo was the special guest ring announcer. Amongst the participants was Kizaemon Saiga, a mixed martial artist. During the match, DJ Nira pinned Akihiro to eliminate it from the match and become the 1,007th champion. Gorgeous Matsuno then eliminated DJ Nira to win the match and become the 1,008th champion.

After the match, LiLiCo pinned Gorgeous Matsuno by surprise to become the 1,009th champion, by virtue of the championship's 24/7 rule.

The next match saw the participation of Aja Kong from Oz Academy.

The "Important Something Time Bombing Deathmatch" was a match in which "an important something" was to be blown up after ten minutes had gone by. Just before the match, it was announced that the important something was the anus of Ryota Yamasato, a comedian who acted as an interviewer for DDT.

In the next match, Sanshiro Takagi teamed up with Jun Kasai from Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS to face Minoru Suzuki and Michael Nakazawa in a Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight that saw the action spill out all around the arena.

In the next match, Kota Ibushi fought Shuji Kondo from Wrestle-1.

In the next match, Konosuke Takeshita faced Hiroshi Tanahashi from New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

## Results

### Three-way elimination match

 02 2 | Isami Kodaka | HARASHIMA | Pinfall

## Footnotes

1. ↑ DJ Nira becomes the 1,007th Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `PeterPan2014CM`
2. ↑ Grabianowski, Ed. How Pro Wrestling Works . *HowStuffWorks, Inc.*. Discovery Communications. Retrieved on 2014-09-13.
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `DDT2014PL`
4. ↑ *ja:DDT “両国ピーターパン 2014～人生変えちゃう夏かもね！～” 8/17 両国国技館大会その５* (in Japanese). *Extreme Party*. Retrieved on 2020-01-28.