How I Met Your Puroresu is a series dedicated to providing background information on matches in hopes of broadening horizons. These matches will be no longer than that of a sitcom as to not overwhelm a first time viewer.
Company: Dramatic Dream Team
Show Title: Day Dream Believer 2021
Match: Yuki Ueno vs Yusuke Okada
Stakes: DDT Universal Championship
Length: 20 Minutes
Production Date: March 14, 2021
Air Date: March 14, 2021
Who doesn’t love a feel-good story? One where wrongs are righted, ships set back on course, and the world feels fair. Since leaving All Japan Pro-Wrestling at the end of 2020, no wrestler has felt more inspired than Yusuke Okada. In the span of three weeks, he proved to the wrestling world that all he ever needed was a chance.
Okada made his pro-wrestling debut in January of 2017 and by January 2019 he was already making his first challenge for the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Trained by the late Atsushi Aoki, Okada quickly climbed the ranks of All Japan’s junior division but everything came to a screeching halt when news broke that his mentor, Aoki, was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident.
Through the tragedy, Okada found himself in his first ever singles main event at Korakuen Hall where he’d wrestle EVOLUTION stablemate, Hikaru Sato, at Atsushi Aoki’s memorial show. The loss of the legend weighed heavy on the entire roster but most notably Jun Akiyama, who stepped down as head booker and looked to leave the company soon thereafter.
With Akiyama out of the way, All Japan would decide to kick Okada out of EVOLUTION and put him in comedy matches. He’d wrestle comedic hair versus hair matches with Seigo Tachibana before losing a GAORA TV Championship match against Yoshitatsu and being forced to join Tatsu Kingdom as the fall guy. 2020 was especially grim for Okada, searching to find his place in wrestling.
DDT’s Yuki Ueno is someone who’s been in the right place throughout his entire career. He picked up his first championship less than two years in, and went on a near 300-day reign as tag team champion in 2020 before winning his first singles championship just one week after losing the tag titles. At just 25-years-old, Ueno is a made man in DDT but someone hungrier is on his trail.
When Jun Akiyama took his leave from All Japan, he found himself joining DDT as a mentor for young talents such as Mizuki Watase and Hideki Okatani. By the end of 2020, he tweeted out a picture of Yusuke Okada and himself hanging out together. Akiyama brought Okada in and on his fifth match with the company, received a non-title singles match against Ueno. In defeat, he still passed with flying colors.
This time, the DDT Universal Championship will be on the line and for the first time since Atsushi Aoki’s memorial show, Yusuke Okada will be in a main event singles match at Korakuen Hall. Under Akiyama once again, Okada is receiving the opportunity to flourish and he’s facing a man in Yuki Ueno who’s yet to reach any sort of setback in his career. Yusuke Okada has a chance to be that setback.
