Founded in March 1997 by Shintaro Muto, the promotion was eventually bought and managed by Shoichi Ichimiya until December 2005, when Sanshiro Takagi took over as the new president.

DDT is in many ways a parody of American pro wrestling, particularly WWE, using over-the-top gimmicks (most notably Danshoku Dino) as well as unique match types including hardcore matches in a campsite (which featured use of bottle rockets as weapons), an "Office Deathmatch" (where the ring was set up to resemble a section of an office building, complete with cubicle walls and computers), and a "Silence Match" (where wrestlers were forbidden to make loud noises, resulting in slow-motion chops and punches and featuring the commentary team speaking in a faux-whisper).

[1] The promotion was founded by Shintaro Muto, Sanshiro Takagi, Kyohei Mikami and Kazushige Nosawa, after they left Pro Wrestling Crusaders.

[2] The promotion was named Dramatic Dream Team, its first event took place on January 31, 1997, in Tokyo.

[citation needed] In March 2010, DDT announced a working relationship with Big Japan Pro Wrestling.

[7] 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.

This led to the launch of the program DDT Wrestling Hour on Niconico, starting April 2.

[8] On June 4, DDT launched another sub-brand named Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW), which was exclusive to women's wrestlers.

[10] On December 23, 2012, DDT announced the creation of their fifth active title, the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship.

On January 14, 2015, DDT opened a women's wrestling school with Makoto Oishi and Cherry as instructors.

[15] Three days after its folding, Union was replaced by a new promotion named Pro-Wrestling Basara, which launched in January 2016.

[21] On July 5, 2017, it was announced that DDT had entered into a partnership with Canada's Canadian Wrestling's Elite promotion.

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.