| Chris Brookes | |
|---|---|
 Brookes in July 2020 | |
| Born | 24 August 1991 Tipton, England |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Chris Brookes Chris Drago [1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) [2] |
| Billed weight | 207 lb (94 kg) [2] |
| Trained by | Jim Hunter and Lee Hunter |
| Debut | 2007 |
Chris Brookes [a] (born 24 August 1991) is an English professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is the current KO-D Openweight Champion, in his second reign. He has also been a two-time DDT Universal Champion.
On 24 August 2019, at Progress x APC, an event organised in collaboration between Progress Wrestling and the French Association les Professionels du Catch (APC), Brookes lost to Tristan Archer in a three way match also including Aigle Blanc and failed to capture the APC Championship. [3]
Alongside Travis Banks as CCK (Commonwealth Catch Kings), Brookes won the Revolution Pro Wrestling tag team titles from Charlie Sterling and Joel Redman in his first match for the company. [4] CCK successfully defended those titles against a number of teams including Ryan Smile and Shane Strickland, [5] Sami Callihan and Martin Stone, [6] and Los Ingobernables de Japón (Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi) [7] before losing the belts to Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate).
CCK had a successful Global Wars 2017, defeating Chaos (Rocky Romero and Yoshi-Hashi) on the first night of the event [8] and successfully teaming with Kid Lykos on the second night against the team of Gedo, Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi. [9] CCK then attempted to regain the tag team titles from new champions Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr.) but lost to the champions at Epic Encounter 2018. [10]
Brookes started wrestling for DDT Pro-Wrestling in June 2019. He notably began teaming with Masahiro Takanashi before naming themselves CDK (Calamari Drunken Kings). At Wrestle Peter Pan, Brookes and Takanashi defeated Moonlight Express (Mao and Mike Bailey). At Summer Vacation, Brookes lost to Konosuke Takeshita and did not win the KO-D Openweight Championship. [11] From 29 November to 28 December 2019, Brookes was an entrant in the 2020 edition of the D-Oh Grand Prix where he tied Tetsuya Endo for first place in block A. A decision match was held between the two men which he lost. In January, Brookes announced that he would be moving to Japan for a whole year, as he wants DDT to be his number one commitment.
On 23 February 2020, at Into The Fight, he defeated Takeshita and became the inaugural DDT Universal Champion. [12] On 20 March, at Judgement 2020: DDT 23rd Anniversary, he lost the title to Daisuke Sasaki. [13]
On 14 March 2021, at Day Dream Believer 2021 he won his first DDT Extreme Championship title by defeating Shunma Katsumata in a Barbed Wire Coffin Deathmatch. [14]
On 20 March 2022, at Judgement 2022: DDT 25th Anniversary, CDK defeated Disaster Box (Harashima and Naomi Yoshimura) to win their first KO-D Tag Team Championship. [15] On 23 April, Brookes won the King of Street Wrestling tournament by defeating Abdullah Kobayashi in the final. [16]
On 21 May 2023, Brookes won the King of DDT Tournament, after having defeated Jun Akiyama in the semifinals and Kazusada Higuchi in the finals, granting him a title shot for the KO-D Openweight Championship. [17] On 23 July 2023, Brookes defeated Yuji Hino at Wrestle Peter Pan 2023 to become the 81st KO-D Openweight Champion. [18] After two successful title defences, against Shigehiro Irie and Saki Akai, Brookes lost the title to Yuki Ueno at Ultimate Party 2023, to begin Ueno's first KO-D Openweight Championship reign. When speaking to reporters immediately after his title loss, Brookes announced the formation of a new stable within the DDT roster, called Schadenfreude International, which would include himself, Masahiro Takanashi, Antonio Honda, and Takeshi Masada. [19]
On 4 November 2024, Brookes defeated Shinya Aoki at Sumida Dramatic Dream to regain the KO-D Openweight Championship, becoming the 84th holder of the title. [20]
On 13 December 2022, Brookes and fellow Brit Drew Parker produced an event celebrating Brookes' 15th anniversary in wrestling. The event, titled "Baka Gaijin + Friends", was held at Arena Shimokitazawa, a curry restaurant located in Setagawa, without a ring and in front of 50 customers. In the main event, Calamari Drunken Kings (Brookes and Takanashi) defeated Parker and Mao. [21] Since then, Baka Gaijin + Friends has become a brand which holds a monthly show at Arena Shimokitazawa. [22]
