DDT CHARISMANIAxMANIAxMANIA Preview (10/2/25)

DDT emanates from Korakuen Hall tomorrow to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Charisma” Daisuke Sasaki through DDT CHARISMANIAxMANIAxMANIA. A healthy collection of DDT mainstays and freelancers will come together for this five-match show, all of them linked or got linked to Sasaki at one point in his career.

The show will start at 6:30 p.m. JST/5:30 a.m. ET, streaming live on Wrestle Universe. Here’s what you can look forward to for this special event: 

DDT CHARISMANIAxMANIAxMANIA Match Card:

• Main event: Daisuke Sasaki 20th Anniversary Match – Daisuke Sasaki & El Desperado vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Antonio Honda
• Semifinal: Togo Family vs. DDT ~5vs5~ – Dick Togo, Yasu Urano, KUBITO, Diego & Naohiro Katsumi vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Yuki Ueno, HARASHIMA, Akito & To-y
• Hardcore Match: Jun Kasai vs. Hideki Okatani 
• 2nd match: Daisuke Sasaki Memorial Cup Gauntlet Tag Match – Yasutaka Oosera & Ilusion vs. Kazuki Hirata & Soma Takao vs. Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya vs. Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada vs. Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie vs. Toru Owashi & Naomi Yoshimura vs. Danshoku Dieno & Sumicaras vs. Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei
• Opening match: Minoru Fujita, Hiroshi Yamato & MJ Paul vs. Yuko Miyamoto, Masashi Takeda & Choun-Shiryu

Sasaki and Desperado First Time Team Up

Daisuke Sasaki and El Desperado have been on opposite sides before, once in a tag match and once in a singles match at Wrestle Peter Pan two years ago. Tomorrow, they will be tag team partners for the first time for the former’s 20th anniversary match.

They will face the team of Shuji Ishikawa and Antonio Honda, two men who have been in the same faction as Sasaki. Ishikawa was a former member of Damnation before the T.A. acronym was added. At the same time, Honda ran with him in the Italian Four Horsemen and Monster Army as his tag team partner in From The Northern Country.

Sasaki will face two former friends with a new partner in a career milestone match. Will he end up with his hands raised, or will he be lying down and staring at the ceiling in this main event?

Okatani and Kasai Tangle For The First Time, Hardcore Style

Hideki Okatani joined Damnation T.A. earlier this year when Sasaki decided to kick KANON out of the group. As one of DDT’s young stars, Sasaki “rewarded” him with a first-time singles match against Japanese deathmatch icon “Crazy Monkey” Jun Kasai.

This isn’t Okatani’s first time wrestling a match with weapons involved, as he has been in a couple against Shunma Katsumata when the two battled for the Extreme title and one against DASH Chisako three years ago. It will be interesting to see how the five-year man will fare against the veteran Kasai, who specializes in hurting his opponents in similar stipulations.