DDT Pro-Wrestling, formerly known as Dramatic Dream Team, was established in 1997. In 2000, the DDT commissioner,
Exciting Yoshida, created the promotion's first championship, which was briefly called the DDT Openweight Championship. Later, the King of DDT (KO-D) was established as DDT's governing body and the title was officially named
KO-D Openweight Championship. The inaugural championship match took place at the
Kitazawa Town Hall, on April 19, where
Masao Orihara defeated DDT founder
Sanshiro Takagi in the final bout to become the first-ever champion. On November 22, 2001,
Nosawa was stripped of the championship by Exciting Yoshida for "not being appropriate as a champion", which led to the first
vacancy of the title. On December 22, 2010, the title was vacated for the second time due to an injury sustained by the reigning champion
Dick Togo. Honda emerged victorious and held the interim championship until the January 30 event, Sweet Dreams!, where he faced Togo in a unification match. Togo ultimately won the match and became the unified champion. At
CyberFight Festival 2022, on June 12, reigning champion
Tetsuya Endo suffered a legitimate concussion after being struck by
Katsuhiko Nakajima. Two days later, DDT held a press conference to discuss the upcoming
King of DDT tournament, which was scheduled to begin on June 16. It was announced that the tournament would crown a new champion as Endo relinquished the title and forfeited his first-round match due to the injury. The vacant title was won by
Kazusada Higuchi after defeating
Naomi Yoshimura in the final on July 3.
Belt design The original KO-D Openweight Championship belt had five plates on a black leather strap. The center plate was rounded and featured a globe centered on the
Greenwich meridian. Three banners above the globe read, from top to bottom, 'Professional Wrestling', 'D²T' and 'Dramatic Dream Team'. The lower banner at the bottom of the globe read 'Wrestling Champion'. Each side plate featured the name and flag of a country with a rich tradition in professional wrestling. From left to right, the countries were
Mexico, the
United States,
Japan and
Canada. This belt was of low quality and deteriorated quickly, leading to the introduction of a new belt in December 2005. The second belt featured a central plate with a globe centered on the
International Date Line and the second 'D²T' logo on top in red enamel. The banner above the globe read 'Professional Wrestling', and two wrestlers were depicted grappling above the banner. The two banners below the globe read 'Dramatic Dream Team' and 'KOD Open-Weight Champion'. The belt had four side plates, similar to the previous version, but with Canada and Mexico having swapped places. On March 27, 2022, at Day Dream Believer, this belt was retired and a third belt was unveiled. The new belt was given to the then champion,
Tetsuya Endo. The current belt has a central plate that features the current DDT logo. A banner above the logo reads 'Dramatic-Dream Team'. The central plate displays the words 'KO-D Open-Weight Champion' along its bottom edge. The two inner side plates depict globes, with the left plate centered on America and the right plate centered on Japan. The two outer side plates bear the DDT logo. Each plate is adorned with red gems in its corners, while the central plate also features white gems along its vertical edges. ==Reigns==