DDT star Kazusada Higuchi has retired from professional wrestling after receiving an unfortunate diagnosis regarding his neck.
The twelve-year veteran has not wrestled since early January, with DDT announcing his retirement on Monday:
Kazusada Higuchi will retire from professional wrestling following the April 5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall event.
During a routine health checkup regularly conducted by the organization, a subluxation of the first and second cervical vertebrae was confirmed, and the doctor diagnosed that “continuing contact sports is dangerous.” In response, we have carefully reviewed and discussed the possibility of continuing his active career with Higuchi himself, the doctor, and the organization, but regrettably, we have reached the conclusion of retirement.
Note that Higuchi will not hold a retirement match, and a retirement ceremony will be held within the same event.
We sincerely thank all the fans who have supported Higuchi up to this point. We kindly ask for your warm cheers until the very end.
Higuchi, 37, competed in sumo from 2007 until 2014 but stated he was always focused on a career in professional wrestling.
He debuted in DDT in October 2014 and would become a four-time KO-D tag & six-man tag champion before ascending as a singles star in the promotion. He won the King of DDT tournament in July 2022 with the vacant KO-D Openweight title at stake and beat Naomi Yoshimura in the final.
He regained the title last year, beating Chris Brookes to start his second reign, and lost the title to Yuki Ueno.
In 2024, he missed time due to a cervical hernia and was married during his time off with actress Naraoka Nico.
DDT will hold a retirement ceremony for Higuchi on April 5 at Korakuen Hall.
