Kawasaki Strong 2021

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various wrestlers

### Tagline(s)

"If you want to see pro wrestling, DDT!" (Japanese: プロレス見るならDDT!, Hepburn: *Puroresu mirunara DDT!*)

## Information

### City

Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

**Kawasaki Strong 2021** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The event took place on February 14, 2021, at the Culttz Kawasaki in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan.

The show was headlined by Tetsuya Endo defending the KO-D Openweight Championship against the winner of the 2021 D-Oh Grand Prix Jun Akiyama. Another high-profile match scheduled for the show featured HARASHIMA and Yuji Okabayashi against Kazusada Higuchi and Yukio Naya. Another title match for the show featured Yuki Ueno defending the DDT Universal Championship against Yukio Sakaguchi. One other title matche included DDT crowned the vacate KO-D 8-Man Tag Team Championship in a match between Sanshiro Takagi, Danshoku Dino, Toru Owashi and Makoto Oishi against Shinya Aoki, Super Sasadango Machine, Antonio Honda and Kazuki Hirata due to the difficulties of scheduling a 10-person match given the COVID-19 pandemic. Wrestlers from CyberFight's Joshi's sub-brand Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJP) – would also appear at the event. The event will air live on AbemaTV online linear television service and CyberFight's streaming service Wrestle Universe as a pay-per-view (PPV).

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the event had some restrictions in attendance, after the Japanese Government lifted the State of Emergency.

## 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.

#### 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. On April 23, DDT announced that the event 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 would be broadcasted live on AmebaTV and CyberAgent's streaming service Wrestle Universe. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics, DDT had to consider new venues for their 2021 events and picked the Culttz Kawasaki arena located in Kawasaki, Kanagawa for the event.

### Storylines

Kawasaki Strong 2021 featured eight 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 Kawasaki Strong 2021 was main evented by Tetsuya Endo making his fourth title defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship against Jun Akiyama. During 2021 D-Oh Grand Prix, Akiyama lost to Tetsuya Endo during the 2021 D-Oh Grand Prix tournament but that didn't ended Akiyama's chances to win the tournament because he would later advance to the finals, defeated Konosuke Takeshita in the finals of the tournament, earning himself a rematch to against Endo for the KO-D Openweight Championship. The match was officially announced the next day during an press conference. If Akiyama is to win, he would become the first wrestler to hold the GHC Heavyweight Championship, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, and the KO-D Openweight Championship.

In the DDT Universal Championship match, Yuki Ueno would made his third title defense against Yukio Sakaguchi. On November 3, 2020, at Ultimate Party 2020, After Ueno made his second successful title defense of the DDT Universal Championship against Shota on January 9, 2021 and then asked for his next challenger to be Yukio Sakaguchi, from whom he said he learned a lot in the past year. Sakaguchi accepted the match, then, in the backstage interview that followed, by attacking Ueno and applied to choke him out. Sakaguchi would warn Ueno that he was going to strangle everyone Ueno teamed with until their title match in February. Ueno would then made fun of Sakaguchi by asking if he wanted to take a picture with the belt again. Only Sakaguchi to do it during a tag team match where Ueno was teaming with Keigo Nakamura where he would submit Nakamura to win.

In the KO-D 8-Man Tag Team Tag Team Championship match, Sanshiro Takagi, Danshoku Dino, Toru Owashi and Makoto Oishi were set to face Shinya Aoki, Super Sasadango Machine, Antonio Honda and Kazuki Hirata for the vacant titles. On December 21, 2020, the KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Championship was vacated and renamed "KO-D 8-Man Tag Team Championship" due to the difficulty of scheduling a proper title defense for the titles during the pandemic due to social distancing. A title match was immediately announced for the Kawasaki Strong 2021 event in which a team led by Sanshiro Takagi would face a team led by Shinya Aoki. The remaining participants were later announced one after another. Takagi and Aoki had previously wrestled over the DDT Extreme Division Championship where Takagi won the title and after ending Aoki's 237 days reign (the third longest in the title history) at Ultimate Party 2020.

The event also included a eight-man tag team match between DAMNATION (Daisuke Sasaki, Soma Takao, Mad Paulie and Yuji Hino) and All Out (Konosuke Takeshita, Akito, Shunma Katsumata and Yuki Iino). On January 3, 2021, at the New Year's Day special show, Yuki Iino a member of the All Out stable who was scheduled to return from an injury at the event, after being angrily confronted Yuji Hino who had returned to DDT on December 23 after leaving Pro Wrestling ZERO1 and aligned himself with the rival heel DAMNATION stable. A singles match between the two was scheduled for February 23 event and Iino return match would be an eight-man tag team match instead of singles match pitting All Out against DAMNATION after thier singles match got delayed due to Hino defeating Iino in an arm wrestling contest where Iino's All Out stablemate Konosuke Takeshita and DDT Assistant Producer Hisaya Imabayashi agree to delay their match until February 23.