Budokan Peter Pan

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various wrestlers

### Tagline(s)

"DDT 15th Anniversary, Ultra-Luxurious 4-Hour Special Until Dawn!" (Japanese: 〜DDTの15周年、ドーンと見せます超豪華4時間SP!〜, Hepburn: *DDT no jūgo-shūnen, dōn to misemasu chōgōka yon-jikan SP!*)

## Information

### City

Tokyo, Japan

The **Budokan Peter Pan** was a professional wrestling event promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The event took place on August 18, 2012, in Tokyo at the Nippon Budokan. The event was the fourth event under the Peter Pan name and the only event promoted under the Budokan 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 Kota Ibushi defending the KO-D Openweight Championship against his partner and the winner of the 2012 King of DDT Kenny Omega. Another match scheduled for the show featured *Tonkatsu SC* (Masa Takanashi, Daisuke Sasaki, Hoshitango, Tetsuya Endo and Tsukasa Fujimoto) facing *Akira-waku FC* (Yasu Urano, Antonio Honda, Yuji Hino, Tanomusaku Toba and Yoshiko) in a ten-man soccer match, which was filmed off-site in atypical, cinematic style. The event aired live on Fighting TV Samurai as a pay-per-view (PPV).

The event also featured two other title matches with Homoiro Clover Z (Kudo and Makoto Oishi) defending the KO-D Tag Team Championship against MIKAMI and Tatsumi Fujinami and DJ Nira 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 announced that the third show would be held at the *Nippon Budokan* instead of the *Ryōgoku Kokugikan* where was traditionally held in the past.

In 2010, DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi originally considered holding a show at the Saitama Super Arena for the following year. However, he was forced to abandon his plans when he found out the arena was already booked out for the entire year, leading Magnum TOKYO to suggested him to hold a show in the Nippon Budokan instead of holding in the usual Ryōgoku Kokugikan arena. On April 1, 2012, DDT announced that rookie Konosuke Takeshita would be debuting for the promotion at the event in a match against El Generico.

### Storylines

The Budokan Peter Pan 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 Budokan Peter Pan was main evented by Kota Ibushi making his second title defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship against his partner and the winner of the 2012 King of DDT Kenny Omega. On July 8, 2012, Omega defeated Danshoku Dino to win the 2012 King of DDT and earn a shot at his tag team partner Kota Ibushi's KO-D Openweight Championship. After the match, Ibushi congratulated Omega for his win. On July 29, Ibushi successfully defended the KO-D Openweight Championship against DJ Nira, who had cashed in his Right to Challenge Anytime, Anywhere contract to set up the match between himself and Omega. On August 14, in preparation for their match at Peter Pan, Omega and Ibushi held separate public practice sessions to demonstrate their progress, leading up to the match, with Ibushi training with Gota Ihashi and Ken Ohka, while Omega trained with Isamu Sugiuchi and Canadian Jiu-Jitsu champion Jason Geiger. In 2006, Omega's friend showed him videos of DDT. Omega was captivated by Kota Ibushi and wanted to work with him, so he filmed himself having a DDT-style match outside the confines of a wrestling ring and uploaded it as well as a video challenge to Ibushi on YouTube. After seeing the videos DDT invited Omega to Japan to wrestle Ibushi. Soon after, he and Ibushi eventually formed a tag team named Golden☆Lovers, winning the KO-D Tag Team Championship and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The event marked the first singles match between Omega and Ibushi since 2008.

On March 18, 2012, it was announced that Minoru Suzuki would face Sanshiro Takagi in a match at Peter Pan. Leading to the match, Takagi began being coached by Yoshiaki Fujiwara. On August 3, during Takagi's stable New World Japan produced event, Suzuki made a surprise appearance laying out Takagi with the Sleeper hold. Afterwards, Takagi challenged Suzuki to a match at the vegetable market down the road from *Shin-Kiba 1st Ring*, but Suzuki instead suggested a bookstore nearby. This led to both agreeing to a match at Peter Pan, leading both to shake hands, before Suzuki laid out Takagi in a *Sleeper Hold*. Three days later, DDT announced that the match had been turned into a weapon rumble match, with Takagi looking to surprise Suzuki during the match. Billed as "Once in a Lifetime match", the match served as a parody for the match between John Cena and The Rock in April 2012.

On July 12, it was announced that HARASHIMA and Shuji Ishikawa would face each other in a special tag team match, with a partner of their choice, as part of HARASHIMA's celebration of his 15th anniversary as a professional wrestler. On July 18, during a Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Union Pro Wrestling event, Ishikawa asked BJW's Ryuji Ito to team with him for the match, which he accepted. On July 22, Ishikawa defeated HARASHIMA in a Hardcore match. Afterwards, HARASHIMA announced that his partner would be New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Togi Makabe.

On July 22, Danshoku Dino and Yoshihiko were defeated by the Golden☆Lovers (Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega). Afterwards, the Invisible Man, an "invisible wrestler" i.e. non-existent, challenged Dino to a match at Peter Pan. Despite Dino being unable to see him, he ended up accepting the challenge

Also on July 22, MIKAMI made his return match to DDT after being injured for seven months, facing Tatsumi Fujinami in a losing effort. Afterwards, MIKAMI asked Fujinami to team with him and challenge for the KO-D Tag Team Championship against Homoiro Clover Z (Kudo and Makoto Oishi) at Peter Pan. The match marked the first championship match Fujinami had in 10 years.

On July 8, Daisuke Sasaki, Masa Takanashi, Antonio Honda, Hoshitango, Yasu Urano and Yuji Hino to form the Monster Army. The Monster Army wrestled its first match together on July 22, when they were defeated by Akito, DJ Nira, Poison Julie Sawada, Rion Mizuki and Tetsuya Endo in a ten-man tag team match, after Hino and Hoshitango began brawling with each other. The brawling continued after the match with Sasaki and Takanashi siding with Hoshitango and Honda and Urano with Hino, which led to Takanashi announcing that the Monster Army was history and that he, Sasaki and Hoshitango were now known as "La Familia". Afterwards, DDT General Manager Amon Tsurumi announced that both sides would face each other in a ten-person tag team match, contested under "Soccer rules", which Sanshiro Takagi announced that DDT had been working with Yoichi Takahashi, the creator of the football manga Captain Tsubasa. Afterwards, it was announced that Antonio Honda, Tanomusaku Toba, Yasu Urano, Yoshiko and Yuji Hino, would be representing "Crying Wolf", while Sasaki, Takanashi, Hoshitango, choose rookie Tetsuya Endo and Ice Ribbon's Tsukasa Fujimoto to represent La Familia at the match.

## Event

The dark match preceding the main card was the "Muscle Offers Time Musclehouse 10.5 Dark Match Rising", a twelve-man tag team match pitting wrestlers from DDT's sub-brand Muscle against wrestlers from the Style-E promotion.

In the opening ceremony, Sunplaza Nakano-kun performed a song on stage.

The Rumble rules match saw the participation of Yuzuki Aikawa from the joshi puroresu promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom. During the match, E.Yoshihiko, a blow-up doll with male make-up, captured the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship by eliminating former champion DJ Nira, thus becoming the 960th champion. E.Yoshihiko was then eliminated by the eventual winner of the match, Yoshiaki Fujiwara who became the 961st champion. After the match, Hiroshi Fukuda attempted to pin Fujiwara but the newly crowned champion put Fukuda in a Fujiwara armbar to successfully defend his title.

The next match saw the debut of Konosuke Takeshita.

In the fifth match, two teams competed in a "5 vs. 5 Soccer match". The match consisted of two halves of 5 minutes each where each team tried to score the most pins by pinfall (two counts) or submission. In the case of a tie, the match was to be decided by an actual soccer penalty shoot-out. Amongst the participants were Tsukasa Fujimoto from Ice Ribbon, Yuji Hino from Kaientai Dojo and Yoshiko from World Wonder Ring Stardom.

In the sixth match, MIKAMI teamed with Tatsumi Fujinami from Dradition to challenge the KO-D Tag Team Champions Homoiro Clover Z (Kudo and Makoto Oishi).

The seventh match was a "Handicap Weapon Rumble" pitting Sanshiro Takagi against Minoru Suzuki. Unlike a traditional DDT Weapon Rumble where both participants bring their pre-selected weapons at regular intervals throughout the match, this match was a handicap match where Suzuki wasn't allowed to bring any weapon.

The eighth match, a hardcore match, involved Togi Makabe from New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

The ninth match was a "Transparent Electric Explosion Deathmatch", a parody of the "Explosive Barbed Wire Rope Deathmatch" stipulation used in hardcore promotions such as Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, in which the explosions are non-existent but where the wrestlers and the referee act as if they were real. In this match, Danshoku Dino faced Invisible Man, an "invisible wrestler" i.e. non-existent.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ E.Yoshihiko becomes the 960th 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 `PeterPan2012CM`
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `DDT2012PL`
3. ↑ *ja:DDT “武道館ピーターパン～DDTの15周年、ドーンと見せます超豪華4時間SP！～” 8/18 日本武道館大会その５* (in Japanese). *Extreme Party*. Retrieved on 2020-01-24.