Shinya Aoki To Officially Sign With DDT On November 3

Shinya Aoki is set to sign with DDT.

DDT announced during their Korakuen Hall event on Sunday that former KO-D Openweight Champion Shinya Aoki will officially sign to the promotion on November 3.

The 43-year-old has been competing for DDT as a freelancer up until this point since 2018, but today it’s been made official that he’s a contracted member of the roster. Aoki’s first match as a signed talent for DDT with take place at DDT’s Ultimate Party in the Ryugoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.

Aoki has competed in 194 matches over his over eight year run with the company, sporting 122 victories. During his run, he’s won an assortment of different titles and tournaments while also giving the mostly comedic promotion a level of legitimacy.

“The Baka Survivor” began his professional wrestling career back in 2013 with the Inoki Genome Federation, a promotion started up by Antonio Inoki as a spiritual successor to the work he was doing while he was still in charge of NJPW in the 2000s. Aoki was brought in a few times with the company as an MMA fighter with ONE Championship, where he is a former two-time ONE Lightweight World Champion.

He would make the move over to DDT in 2018, where he would compete while also continuing his MMA career with ONE. Since joining DDT, Aoki has sported an 8-5 record in MMA. How he fares as a full-time member of DDT remains to be seen.

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As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Shinya Aoki signing with DDT as soon as we hear more.