Dramatic Dream Team (1997–2004) The promotion was founded by Shintaro Muto,
Sanshiro Takagi,
Kyohei Mikami and
Kazushige Nosawa, after they left Pro Wrestling Crusaders. The promotion was named
Dramatic Dream Team, with its first event titled
Judgement taking place on March 25, 1997, in Tokyo. In 1999, DDT started producing pay-per-view digests of its product on DirectTV. The promotion then established their own governing body in 2000, the King of DDT, shortened as KO-D, creating the
KO-D Openweight Championship,
Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship and the
KO-D Tag Team Championship. DDT also created their own tag team tournament, the
DDT Tag League. Later in 2003,
Shoichi Ichimiya became the new president of DDT.
Independent DDT Pro-Wrestling (2004–2017) In April 2004, DDT rebranded to DDT Pro-Wrestling
yūgen gaisha renaming the promotion to
DDT Pro-Wrestling. In October, DDT got a timeslot on
Fighting TV Samurai, creating their regular broadcast program
DDT Dramatic Fantasia. In 2005, indie promotion Union Pro Wrestling was revived by DDT. On December 28, 2005, Ichimiya retired from professional wrestling and announced his departure from DDT. This led to Sanshiro Takagi taking over the promotion as the new president. Then the company focused on the feud between the face stable Italian Four Horsemen and the heel stable Disaster Box. In November 2006, DDT announced the creation of their fourth active title the
DDT Extreme Championship. Later in 2007 DDT announced a working relationship with
Dragon Gate. DDT and Dragon Gate held their first co-promoted show, Dramatic Dream Gate on April 18, 2007, in Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, Japan. DDT would later become a member of the
Global Professional Wrestling Alliance. The group was established as a means to aid the many competing wrestling promotions in Japan. In 2009, DDT announced that they were going to become a stock company, turning their company from private to public. In March 2010, DDT announced a working relationship with
Big Japan Pro Wrestling. Later in March, Takagi announced the DDT48 (later renamed Dramatic Sōsenkyo), which was a fan vote where the winner received a shot at the KO-D Openweight Championship. Later that month, in storyline,
Michael Nakazawa stepped down as the CEO of DDT and Amon Tsurumi became the
General Manager of the promotion. In 2011, DDT received the
Fighting TV Samurai Indie no Oshigoto prize for having the best show the year, winning the
Best Show Award for
Judgement 2011. In March 2012, the Dramatic Fantasia weekly program was briefly cancelled by Samurai TV. This led to the launch of the program
DDT Wrestling Hour on
Niconico, starting April 2. On June 4, DDT launched another sub-brand named
Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW), which was exclusive to women's wrestlers. DDT celebrated its
15th anniversary on August 18, 2012, by holding its first ever event in
Nippon Budokan. On December 23, 2012, DDT announced the creation of their fifth active title, the
KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On January 17, 2013, DDT announced that
Daisuke Sasaki had signed a contract to officially make DDT his home promotion, ending his days as a freelancer. On April 17 DDT formed another sub-brand
Ganbare☆Pro-Wrestling (GanPro). On May 3, DDT's Max Bump event was broadcast live by
Samurai TV. After that DDT launched a weekly program '''DDT's Pro-Wrestling Banzai \(^o^)/''', which was also broadcast by Samurai TV. On November 28, DDT announced a new project named DDT New Attitude (DNA) which would be another sub-brand of DDT, functioning as a
developmental brand for DDT. On January 14, 2015, DDT opened a women's wrestling school with
Makoto Oishi and
Cherry as instructors. Later DDT announced the creation of their sixth active title, the
King of Dark Championship, which would be "won" by the loser of a
dark match. On June 23, DDT opened the Dropkick Bar which is a professional wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts-themed sports bar. Professional wrestling personalities regularly make appearances at the bar. On August 17 it was announced that Union Pro would be folding after its 10th anniversary event on October 4. Three days after its folding, Union was replaced by a new promotion named
Pro-Wrestling Basara, which launched in January 2016. In October 2016, DDT announced "
DDT Universe", a new streaming service for events held by DDT, DNA, Basara, TJPW and GanPro. The service launched on January 23, 2017. On April 30, 2017, announced the creation of their seventh active title, the
KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Championship, meant for teams of five wrestlers, the title is believed to be the first of its kind in professional wrestling. with the inaugural champions crowned on August 20, 2017. On July 5, 2017, it was announced that DDT had entered into a partnership with Canada's Canadian Wrestling's Elite promotion. On August 20
Danshoku Dino defeated Sanshiro Takagi in a match, where if Dino won he would become the Producer of DDT. After Dino won he fired the DDT's General Manager Amon Tsurumi and Turumi returned to a backstage role as assistant producer and reverted to his real name Hisaya Imabayashi. Dino also announced the creation of a new tournament called "
D-Oh Grand Prix".
DDT under CyberAgent (2017–present) On September 1, 2017, 100% of DDT's shares were sold to the
CyberAgent company. Sanshiro Takagi remained as the DDT president, while CyberAgent director Takahiro Yamauchi took over as the new DDT director. On June 11, 2019, DDT announced Basara would be splitting up from DDT and become an independent company starting January 1, 2020. In October, the third edition of the annual "Iron Fist Tag Tournament" led to the creation of Basara's first
tag team championship, the
Iron Fist Tag Team Championship. On January 28, 2020, DDT's parent company CyberAgent purchased
Pro Wrestling Noah. DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi was named the President of Pro Wrestling Noah and Naomichi Marufuji the Vice President. Noah's events began airing on DDT's streaming service DDT Universe starting with Noah's Global Jr. League 2020 on January 30. On July 27, 2020, it was announced Noah and DDT would merge in a new company,
CyberFight. On March 20, 2022, at
Judgement, it was announced that
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) had formed a working relationship with DDT and TJPW that would see wrestlers from both brands appear on AEW programming. On December 15, 2023, DDT was announced as one of the founding members of the
United Japan Pro-Wrestling alliance, a joint effort to further develop professional wrestling in Japan through promotion and organization, with
Seiji Sakaguchi being named as the chairman of the project. ==Personnel==