Ryōgoku Peter Pan (2011)

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various wrestlers

### Tagline(s)

"What Happens Twice Will Happen Thrice." (Japanese: 〜二度あることは三度ある〜, Hepburn: *Nido aru koto wa sando aru.*)

## Information

### City

Tokyo, Japan

The **Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2011** was a professional wrestling event promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The event took place on July 24, 2011, in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The event was the third event under the Peter Pan name and the third 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 Shuji Ishikawa defending the KO-D Openweight Championship against the winner of the 2011 King of DDT Kudo. Another high-profile match scheduled for the show featured Bob Sapp facing Danshoku Dino. The event aired live on Fighting TV Samurai as a pay-per-view (PPV).

The event also featured four other title matches with TKG48 (Sanshiro Takagi and Munenori Sawa) defending the Big China Unified Nakahara Tag Team Championship against The Great Sasuke and Ricky Fuji in a Falls Count Anywhere tag team match as a dark match, Hero! Gundam (HARASHIMA and HERO!) defending the KO-D Tag Team Championship against Daisuke Sekimoto and Masa Takanashi, Granma (GENTARO and Yasu Urano), and Kenny Omega and Michael Nakazawa in a Four-way tag team elimination match and Kota Ibushi defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Prince Devitt as part of a partnership between DDT and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

## Production

### Background

In 2008, DDT set the goal of promoting a show in the *Ryōgoku Kokugikan*. Since 2009, DDT began annually producing shows in the *Ryōgoku Kokugikan* held in the summer, becoming DDT premier annual event and the biggest event in the independent circuit of Japanese wrestling, following the financial success of the first show, which sold out 9,000 tickets.

### Storylines

The Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2011 event featured nine 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 Shuji Ishikawa making his third title defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship against the winner of the 2011 King of DDT Kudo. On March 27 at Judgement, Ishikawa and Kudo took part in a battle royal to decide the #1 contender to KO-D Openweight Championship and the Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere. Ishikawa would win the battle royal after last eliminating Kudo. Two months later, Ishikawa defeated Dick Togo to win the KO-D Openweight Championship. On May 29, Kudo defeated HARASHIMA in the finals to win the 2011 King of DDT, setting up the main event for the event. Afterwards, the DDT roster gave him an initiation, in which they all lined up and hit Kudo with one of their trademark moves, with the idea being that they were all transferring their energy into him and he would represent the entire promotion in the match. However, Ishikawa stopped the initiation, delivering him a *Splash Mountain*, while also proclaiming that Kudo had no hope of winning their match.

In 2010, Prince Devitt and Kota Ibushi started to build a rivalry, which escalated on the following year, after Ibushi and his partner Kenny Omega defeated Devitt and his partner Ryusuke Taguchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but them back to Devitt and Taguchi on January 23 at *Fantastica Mania 2011.* Five months later, their rivalry returned, on June 10, after Ibushi defeated Ryusuke Taguchi in the finals to win 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournament and earn a shot at Prince Devitt's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On June 18 at Dominion 6.18, Prince Devitt lost his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Best of the Super Juniors winner, Kota Ibushi. Shortly after, it was announced that Devitt would receive his rematch at Ryōgoku Peter Pan.

Prior to the event in June 2011, MMA fighter Bob Sapp under "beast will fight for money" gimmick, entered in a storyline, where after the fall of his professional wrestling career in Japan, he began regularly beg in the streets of Tokyo, pleading that he would “fight for money”. While one person was there to help him, he soon became too busy slapping masked men disguised as charity events for Sapp to rely on. After founding a poster for this show, Sapp traveled over to DDT Headquarters, where he met Ken Ohka and Sanshiro Takagi, who were surprised by his sudden appearance but offered him the chance to redeem himself. However, Ohka accidentally dumped Sapp’s begging bucket over his head, leading him threatened that he would destroy DDT on July 24. After winning the opportunity to choose an opponent for the event, Danshoku Dino nominated Sapp to his opponent for the Ryōgoku Peter Pan and defend DDT’s honour. Afterwards, Sapp sent four assassins to face Dino on the condition that Dino could defeat them all, Sapp would face him at the event. Every time, Dino defeated an assassin that Sapp sent, he was about to learn some valuable information about Sapp, but the Assassin would be shot in the neck with a poison dart by an unknown sniper. On June 19, after Dino defeated Sapp last assassin Sexxxy Eddy, Dino finally met, but Sapp didn't take him seriously. Sapp demanded that they decide what the rules of the match should be, which was decided that the match would become a 30 round match with the rules switching between "Bob Rules" and "Gay Rules" every round. The "Bob Rules" would be similar to MMA with Dino’s more perverted moves being made illegal, while the “Gay Rules” would be just like normal pro wrestling, but with perverted moves being legal and encouraged.

On February 11, 2011, during a battle royal, Minoru Fujita, who took part in the match, was expelled from the match, after being kicked out of the arena for constantly showing up uninvited. Later that night, Fujita under HARASHIMA's previous gimmick HERO!, returned to the arena, helping HARASHIMA to win the match, which left HARASHIMA confused for seeing his former alter ego. Afterwards, DDT General Manager Tsurumi Amon proposed the two team up to challenge for the KO-D Tag Team Championship. The new team got along well but this version of HERO! was not quite right. However, this version of HERO!, instead of fighting fair, began cheating to win matches. This led to HARASHIMA and HERO! unsuccessfully challenging GENTARO and Yasu Urano for the KO-D Tag Team Championship, due to HARASHIMA caught his partner cheating and got him to stop, before Urano pin him to retain the titles. Over the following months, the KO-D Tag Team Championship changed hands twice, leading Michael Nakazawa and Kenny Omega to win the titles on June 19, before losing them to HARASHIMA and HERO! on June 24. Meanwhile, Masa Takanashi made his return to wrestling after missing a year due to a knee injury. Afterwards, Tsurumi Amon announced a match between Takanashi and Michael Nakazawa, in which the winner would receive a spot in the three-way match for the KO-D Tag Team Championship at Ryōgoku Peter Pan. On July 5, Nakazawa and Takahashi faced each other in a time limit draw, leading, Amon to reward both wrestlers and chose their own partners for the match. Nakazawa chose Kenny Omega, while Takanashi chose Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Daisuke Sekimoto.

In November 2010, Soma Takao turned heel joining the Shit Heart♥Foundation. Soon after, Takao took over the leadership of the stable and began reshaping it under his heel attitude, but Shit Heart♥Foundation founding member Hikaru Sato dislike the stable's new direction, leading him to leave the stable in disgust. This led to a feud between Sato and Takao, which culminated in a no disqualification *Cabellera Contra Cabellera* (Hair vs. Hair) match on February 27, that Takao won due to interference of Shit Heart♥Foundation's newest member Super Shit Machine. Over the following months, Tomomitsu Matsunaga and Super Shit Machine began being frustrated with Takao, after he failed to cash in his Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere contract against Shuji Ishikawa for the KO-D Openweight Championship on June 19, leading him to be kicked out of the stable. Meanwhile, Sanshiro Takagi decided to join DDT’s sub-brand Union Pro Wrestling (Union Pro), forming a new stable the TKG48. Afterwards, Takagi's arch-rival Yoshiaki Yago also joined Union Pro and used the formation of TKG48 as a way to reignite his feud with Takagi, leading him to form an alliance with Madoka and Kengo Ohka. Soon after, Yago became impressed with Union Pro's Representative Naomi Susan, leading them to claim to be Susan's bodyguards and forming the Susan Guard. Shortly after, Susan Guard formed an alliance with Shit Heart♥Foundation, forming the Susan Shit Hearts♥Superstars. On July 3, Susan Shit Hearts♥Superstars attacked Sanshiro Takagi, Hikaru Sato, and Soma Takao, leading Takao and Sato to put their differences aside when Sato was willing to forgive Soma for his actions. Soon after, Takagi, Sato, and Takao were joined by two of DDT’s rookies Akito and Kazuki Hirata, after Sato being impressed by their performances, leading to a Ten-man elimination match. However, leading to the show, Madoka couldn't take part in their match, leading him to be replaced Minoru Suzuki.

## Event

As in the previous year, Michael Nakazawa's anal blast was held as the opening ceremony. This time Nakazawa was selected by a fan votation. The detonation was carried out by retired wrestler Dick Togo using a "bazooka".

In the dark match preceding the main card, Sanshiro Takagi and Munenori Sawa from Battlearts challenged the team of Ricky Fuji and The Great Sasuke from Michinoku Pro Wrestling in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the Greater China Unified Zhongyuan Tag Team Championship. The match took place in various rooms of the backstage area.

In the Ironman Rumble match, Antonio Honda captured the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship by eliminating former champion Daisuke Sasaki. However, just after the match, Gorgeous Matsuno surprised Honda and pinned him to become the new champion.

The four-way tag team elimination match saw the participation of Daisuke Sekimoto from Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Gentaro from Pro-Wrestling Freedoms. Minoru Fujita competed under the name "Hero!", the former name of his tag team partner HARASHIMA.

Danshoku Dino faced Bob Sapp in a match scheduled for thirty rounds, with each round being three minutes in duration.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Takagi and Suzuki eliminated each other at the same time by going over the top rope.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `PeterPan2011CM`
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 `DDT2011PL`
4. ↑ *ja:DDT “両国ピーターパン2011～二度あることは三度ある～” 7/24 両国国技館大会その４* (in Japanese). *Extreme Party*. Retrieved on 2020-01-23.