When was Wrestle Kingdom 9?

Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2015. It was the 24th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the first event on the 2015 NJPW schedule. The event featured ten professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match, six of which were for championships.

Wrestle Kingdom 9

In the double main event, Shinsuke Nakamura successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi, and Hiroshi Tanahashi successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. A Tanahashi–Okada heavyweight title match had headlined Wrestle Kingdom 7 two years earlier and was also the main event the following year at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Although the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship was successfully defended, the IWGP Tag Team Championship, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and NEVER Openweight Championship changed hands. The appearance of Pro Wrestling Noah wrestlers led to a storyline in which NJPW's Suzuki-gun group began wrestling at Noah events starting the week after Wrestle Kingdom 9.

The event was attended by 36,000 people. Through NJPW's partnership with Global Force Wrestling (GFW), the event was broadcast with English commentary as a GFW event. It was available on PPV television in the United States and Canada, and broadcast worldwide on the Internet via Flipps and New Japan Pro Wrestling World. Critics issued positive reviews; "Philly.com" said it featured "good, quality wrestling", while "Paste" magazine said it presented "some of the most passionate and poignant performance art today". Readers of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" voted Wrestle Kingdom 9 the Best Major Wrestling Show of 2015; they also named the Ibushi–Nakamura match as the 2015 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year.

Wrestle Kingdom has been described as "New Japan's major annual show" and the "equivalent" of WWE's WrestleMania pay-per-view (PPV) event. Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome was promoted as the "largest wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and was the 24th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, although previous events were held under different names.

On August 10, 2014, NJPW made two announcements. Firstly, Wrestle Kingdom 9 would be held at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2015. Secondly, NJPW revealed a partnership with Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling, which it approached about bringing the event to a new market. On November 4, GFW announced that it would present the event live on American pay-per-view television and that it had a PPV market of 125 million homes.

The event was broadcast on American PPV as the first GFW event. The four-hour "GFW Presents New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 9" telecast was available from pay-per-view providers in the United States, including DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse, Comcast, Verizon FiOS and all cable systems, and in Canada from Bell ExpressVu, Rogers, Shaw, Sasktel and Telus. The event also aired live on New Japan Pro Wrestling World, an Internet streaming site introduced by NJPW in early December 2014 which reportedly had 20,000 subscribers worldwide in late January 2015. In Japan, the event also aired on PPV in SKY PerfecTV!'s Sukachan service. In January 2016, Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" stated that Wrestle Kingdom 9 "was the only live pro wrestling PPV event ever broadcast [internationally] from Japan".

The GFW version of the event was streamed worldwide (except in North America and Japan) on the Flipps application for Internet-connected smartphones, tablet computers and smart TVs. On Flipps, the show was available live and on-demand for 30 days after its initial airing.

On November 11, 2014, GFW announced that Jim Ross would be the lead announcer for its version of the event. It was Ross's first professional-wrestling broadcast since his 2013 departure from WWE. Ross attempted to obtain Mike Tenay of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) for color commentary, but TNA refused. Others considered for the job were John Pollock, Mauro Ranallo and Kevin Nash, before GFW settled on Matt Striker.

Before the event, the GFW broadcasts experienced setbacks. Many cable companies decided not to air the event live, opting instead for a replay of UFC 182, and the stream would not run on three of the four most used devices compatible with Flipps: Chromecast, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. According to Dave Meltzer, NJPW undercut GFW by including the event in the $8.42 monthly price for New Japan Pro Wrestling World; the GFW broadcast of Wrestle Kingdom 9 alone was $34.95. The New Japan Pro Wrestling World stream had Japanese commentary only.

AXS TV, which acquired the rights to broadcast Wrestle Kingdom 9 from the TV Asahi Corporation, aired the event in five parts from October 9 to November 6, 2015, to viewers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Commentary was provided by Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett.

Wrestle Kingdom 9 featured ten professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match. It saw professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The event was headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. Tanahashi won the title by defeating A.J. Styles on October 13, 2014, at the NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling event. Okada became the number one contender at Wrestle Kingdom 9 by winning the G1 Climax on August 10, 2014. Over the following months, he defended his position against Karl Anderson and Tetsuya Naito. The Wrestle Kingdom 9 main event was the seventh match between Okada and Tanahashi since February 2012 and their second January 4 Tokyo Dome Show main event after Wrestle Kingdom 7 on January 4, 2013.

Wrestle Kingdom 9's other main event was determined at the November 8, 2014, NJPW Power Struggle show. After Shinsuke Nakamura defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Katsuyori Shibata, Kota Ibushi entered the ring, assaulted Nakamura, and issued a title challenge; Nakamura accepted. This was a turning point in Ibushi's career, since he had recently joined the heavyweight division after gaining weight. A previous singles match between Nakamura and Ibushi during the 2013 G1 Climax was ranked "Best Bout of the Year" by the "Tokyo Sports" newspaper.

Previous IWGP Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles (of the Bullet Club group) and fellow top contender Tetsuya Naito were slated to wrestle each other at Wrestle Kingdom 9. During the 2014 G1 Climax (when Styles was IWGP Heavyweight Champion), Naito pinned him in a non-title tournament match but did not have a title shot before Styles lost to Tanahashi. Since Styles did not receive a rematch with Tanahashi, it was theorized by the American media that the Wrestle Kingdom 9 winner would be the top contender.

Another title that was contested at Wrestle Kingdom 9 was the IWGP Tag Team Championship, with Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson defending against Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata. Goto and Shibata teamed up after a match against each other at the January 4, 2014, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8, and the two former high-school classmates named their team "Meiyu Tag" ("meiyu" means "sworn brothers" in Japanese). In March 2014, they entered the IWGP Tag Team Championship picture by defeating the Bullet Club's IWGP Tag Team Champions Anderson and Gallows in a non-title match at NJPW's 42nd-anniversary event. This led to a title match at the April 6 NJPW Invasion Attack 2014, where Anderson and Gallows retained the title. In December, Goto and Shibata won the 2014 World Tag League tournament, defeating Anderson and Gallows in the final to earn another chance at the title.

Wrestle Kingdom 9 also showcased a rivalry between Toru Yano and the Suzuki-gun group, which had been going on since 2013. In May 2014, Yano's tag team partner Takashi Iizuka joined Suzuki-gun, which led to Yano recruiting Kazushi Sakuraba as his new tag team partner to continue the feud. The rivalry lasted for the rest of the year, resulting in two Wrestle Kingdom 9 matches: one between former mixed martial artists Sakuraba and Suzuki-gun leader Minoru Suzuki, and a tag team match pitting Yano and a "mystery partner" against a Suzuki-gun team. The latter became an eight-man tag team match, with Suzuki-gun represented by Iizuka, Shelton X Benjamin, and the Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer). Yano recruited three partners from the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion: Naomichi Marufuji and TMDK (Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste).

The Wrestle Kingdom 9 undercard featured several matches involving the Bullet Club, which was led by A.J. Styles. The group dominated NJPW for most of 2014, holding all four of its heavyweight championships during the summer. After the NJPW–GFW partnership was forged, GFW head Jeff Jarrett joined the Bullet Club on August 10. On December 7, during a Bullet Club post-match assault on Tomoaki Honma, NJPW veteran tag team Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) stormed into the ring to the aid of Honma, driving the Bullet Club away. They then joined Honma to challenge the stable to a six-man tag team match at Wrestle Kingdom 9. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi and Jeff Jarrett—making his NJPW ring debut—were scheduled to represent the Bullet Club at the event.

The pre-show featured one match, the New Japan Rumble. Tiger Mask and Yuji Nagata began the match, with new wrestlers entering each minute. Wrestlers worked to eliminate each other, and the last remaining wrestler won. In this match, eliminations could occur via pinfall, submission, disqualification, or being thrown out of the ring over the top rope. The Great Kabuki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Hiro Saito were surprise entrants. Captain New Japan was the first eliminated when Tama Tonga threw him over the top rope. Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu worked together to eliminate Taichi and Tiger Mask. After Tanaka was eliminated by submitting to Manabu Nakanishi's torture rack, Tonga eliminated Nakanishi and Komatsu via pinfall, the latter after a jumping DDT. Yoshi-Hashi threw Tonga over the top rope for the elimination, leaving himself and Nagata in the match. Nagata won the match by slamming Hashi against the mat with a belly-to-back suplex, bridging into a pinfall elimination at 26 minutes and 9 seconds.

The first match of the PPV show saw reDRagon (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero), Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida), and the Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). Romero performed the "Forever Clothesline" (multiple corner clotheslines) and double clotheslines on his opponents. A series of dives out of the ring culminated in Kushida diving from the turnbuckles onto his opponents on the floor. Although Time Splitters followed with a neckbreaker-moonsault combination on Nick, the three-count for a pinfall was stopped at two. The Young Bucks started a "Superkick Party" (multiple superkicks) and continued with a "Meltzer Driver" (assisted Tombstone piledriver) on Koslov, but the pin was again broken up. ReDRagon took over with a backbreaker and diving knee drop on Shelley, a double arm DDT and wheelbarrow suplex on Matt, and a super falcon arrow by Fish on Nick. The first "Chasing the Dragon" kick/brainbuster combination attempt was countered by an inside cradle by Koslov for a two count, but the second "Chasing the Dragon" attempt succeeded; O'Reilly pinned Koslov to retain the title at 13 minutes and 1 second.

In the second match, the Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett, and Yujiro Takahashi faced New Japan's Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, and Tomoaki Honma. Takahashi received a Jarrett guitar shot meant for Honma, a 3D from Tencozy, and a "Kokeshi" diving headbutt from Honma before Honma pinned him for the victory at 5 minutes and 35 seconds.

The third match saw Suzuki-gun's Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton Benjamin, and Takashi Iizuka opposing Toru Yano and Pro Wrestling Noah representatives Naomichi Marufuji, Mikey Nicholls, and Shane Haste. Smith's powerbomb of Nicholls, Archer's chokeslam of Haste, and Benjamin's super overhead belly-to-belly throw of Marufuji were not enough for the victory; the opposing team overwhelmed Iizuka with a low blow by Yano, a double-team gorilla press slam by TMDK, and a "Tiger Uppercut" knee lift by Marufuji. This led to Marufuji scoring a pinfall on Iizuka at 5 minutes and 5 seconds.

The fourth match, between Minoru Suzuki and Kazushi Sakuraba, was conducted under UWFi rules; it would end with a knockout, submission, or referee stoppage. During the match, Sakuraba and Suzuki battled onto the entrance ramp, where Sakuraba used a kimura lock to injure Suzuki's arm. When they returned to the ring, Sakuraba targeted Suzuki's injured arm with kicks, stomps, and a cross armbreaker hold. Suzuki withstood the assault, responding with slaps with his good arm and a running kick to Sakuraba's face. Suzuki applied a rear naked choke, making a judo throw while maintaining the choke ("Saka Otoshi"). Sakuraba fought the hold until he lost consciousness, at which point the referee stopped the match in favour of Suzuki at 9 minutes and 21 seconds. After the match, the wrestlers shook hands and embraced.

Next, Tomohiro Ishii defended the NEVER Openweight Championship against Togi Makabe. Clotheslines, forearms, shoulder blocks, slaps, headbutts, sledgehammers, powerslams, powerbombs, and German suplexes were exchanged. Makabe won the match (and the title) with a running lariat and the "King Kong Knee Drop" from the top rope, followed by a pinfall at 12 minutes and 23 seconds.

In the sixth match, Ryusuke Taguchi defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega of the Bullet Club. Distractions by the Bullet Club's Young Bucks allowed Omega to spray Taguchi in the eyes with an aerosol can and broke Taguchi's ankle lock on Omega later in the match. Omega captured the championship after a snap dragon suplex, a bicycle knee strike, and the "One Winged Angel" (electric chair dropped into a one-handed driver), pinning the champion at 13 minutes and 20 seconds.

The final tag team match of the event, the IWGP Tag Team Championship, pitted the Bullet Club's Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows against challengers Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata). The champions controlled Goto early in the match, but after Goto tagged in Shibata, all four men battled in the ring. At the end of the match, Anderson was kicked off the ring apron by Shibata; this led to a pinfall on Gallows after a double-team GTS and Shibata's "Penalty Kick", giving Meiyu Tag the title after 9 minutes.

The eighth match was between A.J. Styles and Tetsuya Naito. Although Styles twice attempted his signature "Styles Clash", Naito countered and Styles then focused on attacking Naito's left leg. Styles later applied the "Calf Killer", forcing Naito to grab the rope to break the hold. After another "Styles Clash" attempt, Naito countered by throwing Styles over the top rope to the floor. When Styles returned to the ring after a 19 count (NJPW employs a 20 count in their matches), Naito attempted a top-rope huracanrana. Styles blocked it, converting it to a "Styles Clash" from the second rope before pinning Naito for another Bullet Club victory at 14 minutes and 25 seconds.

Wrestle Kingdom 9 featured two main event matches. In the first, Shinsuke Nakamura defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi. Ibushi ridiculed Nakamura and used several of the champion's moves, including the corner vibration boot, the reverse powerslam, and the "Boma Ye" knee strike. Nakamura, responding aggressively, kicked out of the latter at one. Nakamura used a variety of knee-based strikes, and Ibushi's attacks included a standing corkscrew moonsault, a roundhouse kick, an elevated sit-out powerbomb, and a double stomp to the chest. Ibushi also jumped on the top rope, grabbing Nakamura on the apron, and German-suplexed him back into the ring for a two count. In the finishing sequence, Ibushi got up immediately after receiving a knee from the second rope to the back of his head; both attempted the "Boma Ye", but Nakamura recovered first with the "Landslide" and then the "Boma Ye" knee to retain the title at 20 minutes and 12 seconds. After the match, the wrestlers bumped fists.

In the second main event, Hiroshi Tanahashi defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. The challenger controlled the early match with a hanging DDT onto the floor, a "Heavy Rain" (Death Valley driver) on the entrance ramp, and the "D.I.D." submission. After they battled on the top rope, Tanahashi missed a "High Fly Flow" but countered Okada's "Rainmaker". The momentum shifted to Tanahashi as he performed a dragon screw legwhip and continued attacking Okada's leg. Tanahashi later dove off the top rope and over the guard rail with a "High Fly Flow" crossbody to Okada on the floor outside of the ring. After Tanahashi tried another "High Fly Flow" crossbody back in the ring, Okada rolled through for a Tombstone piledriver, which Tanahashi countered with his own Tombstone. Although Tanahashi landed a "High Fly Flow" to Okada's back and a traditional "High Fly Flow" frog splash, Okada kicked out at two for a nearfall.

Tanahashi next tried a "Rainmaker", which Okada countered with one of his own and scored a nearfall. Although Okada attempted the "Rainmaker" three more times, Tanahashi countered with a bridging straitjacket German suplex, a bridging dragon suplex, a series of dragon-screw legwhips, and three "High Fly Flows". The first was a crossbody while Okada was on the ropes; the second a frog splash to a seated Okada, and the third another frog splash, after which Tanahashi scored a pinfall on Okada to retain the title at 30 minutes and 57 seconds. Okada wept as he left the ring, and Tanahashi shouted that his opponent had a long way to go before becoming the New Japan ace. Tanahashi closed the show, thanking the fans and performing his air guitar routine.

Wrestle Kingdom 9 drew 36,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, reportedly (accordingly to "Wrestleview.com" and the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter") the best attendance for a NJPW January 4 Tokyo Dome Show in 13 years. The event reportedly had 12,000 to 15,000 purchases in North America.

"Kobe Shimbun" "Daily Sports Online" called Tanahashi "Mr. Tokyo Dome" for winning his fifth consecutive Wrestle Kingdom main event in the arena. Jason Namako of "Wrestleview.com", who watched the Japanese version of the show via New Japan World, said that the event "proved one thing, "puroresu" is, beyond a shadow of doubt, indeed "ichiban"!!" Meanwhile, Aaron Oster of "The Baltimore Sun" wrote that "Wrestle Kingdom 9 has to be considered a success".

Bob Kapur of "Slam! Wrestling" wrote that the show was "too good to miss", "even if you're not a Japanese wrestling fan", with the positives being in-ring action, commentary and production levels, and "perhaps the only negative comment were some technical issues" with his Rogers' HD PPV feed failing. James Caldwell of the "Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter" also concurred that the show was a "must-see". As well as a "fantastic opening video package running down the card", the NEVER Openweight Championship match received four out of five stars as a "fantastic match taking the Tokyo Dome to the next level." The IWGP Intercontinental Championship match received four-and-a-half stars: "... a big-time match on a big-time stage, and Ibushi looked the part of a big-time player". The IWGP Heavyweight Championship match received five stars, with Caldwell stating, "There's nothing better in the industry than these two on a big stage in a big-time main event. Just the world's best."

According to Garrett Martin of the magazine "Paste", Wrestle Kingdom 9 "easily could wind up being the best [wrestling show of the year] when the year is done". He praised Jim Ross, whose "timeless voice cut through the language barrier" for American wrestling fans, and likened his commentary to "reading the first English translation of Homer." Martin commented on the ending of the show, stating that a "broken Kazuchika Okada shambling tearfully back towards the locker room ... made the moment feel real" which displayed that "Okada isn't just a great athlete but a better actor than most who step into the ring, and elevating the entire scripted, choreographed display into something beyond a sport." Martin wrote that New Japan had transcended puroresu and has produced "some of the most passionate and poignant performance art today."

Jason Powell of "Pro Wrestling Dot Net" predicted that even first-time viewers of New Japan would be "thrilled" watching this event. Although the "first half of the night felt rushed and had too many tag matches", the show still held his "interest from start to finish" and its final three matches were "amazing". Powell described several matches as overtaking each other as the night's best as the event progressed: the "very physical" Ishii–Makabe, then Naito–Styles, then Ibushi–Nakamura. English-language commentators Ross and Striker were endorsed as an overall positive. Lastly, Powell thought the "pay-per-view broadcast is fantastic", but he also said some "Pro Wrestling Dot Net" readers "reported issues with the Flipps app [broadcast] feed for the show.

In his review, Vaughn Johnson of the Philadelphia Media Network through "Philly.com" wrote: "Everything that was presented to the worldwide audience was simple and didn't require anyone to know the Japanese language. Good, quality wrestling is a universal language, and I got the message New Japan sent Sunday loud and clear." According to Johnson, some viewers were "exposed to a product for the first time where the outcomes of the matches are still important, as Okada showed by openly crying after his loss to Tanahashi" in a main event, which was "just as much a spectacle as it was a fantastic match athletic exhibition." He wrote that to call the Nakamura–Ibushi match "physical would be a gross understatement ... It was brutal to watch at times" but "one of the best" he had ever seen. Johnson praised the event as "devoid of popcorn matches and silly gimmicks that insult your intelligence", and commentators Ross and Striker for focusing "on the action in the ring and the significance of it instead of cracking jokes and making a million plugs."

According to the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", although several early matches were "rushed", the final two were candidates for "match of the year". Readers of the publication voted Wrestle Kingdom 9 the Best Major Wrestling Show of 2015; they also named the match between Ibushi and Nakamura the 2015 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year, and the match between Okada and Tanahashi was voted the fourth best of 2015. Dave Meltzer gave commentary for the result in January 2016, describing Wrestle Kingdom 9 as "the blow away show of" 2015 and "the peak show of the rise of New Japan Pro Wrestling from very low levels for much of the late 00s".

According to commentator Jim Ross, Japanese television producer TV Asahi did not contact the English-language team during the event; he and Striker announced "by our instincts and it seemed to work out pretty well". Ross also said, "Time will tell but if this was my last pro wrestling event, I picked a damn good one on which to go out on."

In the wake of his loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event, Kazuchika Okada entered a "downward spiral" storyline with three quick losses to Bad Luck Fale. The day after his win over Tetsuya Naito, A.J. Styles emerged as the next challenger for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by pinning Tanahashi in an eight-man tag team match. Styles then defeated Tanahashi for the championship on February 11 at NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka. Bullet Club captured two more titles in that event, with the Young Bucks winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, and Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson defeating Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 9 to regain the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Okada's slump ended on April 5 at NJPW Invasion Attack 2015, where he defeated Fale, which he followed with a victory over Styles on July 5 at NJPW Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Another rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 9 was scheduled for February 14 at NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai between Togi Makabe and Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship. When Makabe was sidelined with influenza, NJPW stripped him of the title and scheduled another match, in which Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma for the now-vacant title. Ishii and Makabe had their title rematch on April 29, when Makabe regained the NEVER Openweight Championship.

Wrestle Kingdom 9 broke Yuji Nagata's streak of consecutive January 4 Tokyo Dome Show appearances at 21 by being featured on the pre-show instead of the main card. In an interview, Nagata said that he felt slighted and thought about quitting when he was relegated to the pre-show. The day after the event, he was scheduled to challenge Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, returning to the IWGP main-event picture for the first time in years. Although Nagata received his title shot at NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai, he was defeated by Nakamura. Nakamura's Wrestle Kingdom 9 opponent, Kota Ibushi, won the 2015 New Japan Cup tournament on March 15 by defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals, thus earning the right to choose a championship to challenge. Ibushi picked a match with A.J. Styles for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (leaving Goto to challenge Nakamura). Ibushi failed in his title challenge on April 5 at NJPW Invasion Attack 2015, and Goto defeated Nakamura on May 3 at NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2015 to become IWGP Intercontinental Champion.

After Wrestle Kingdom 9, Suzuki-gun declared war on Pro Wrestling Noah because Naomichi Marufuji and TMDK helped Toru Yano. This storyline angle appeared at the January 10 Noah event, when Suzuki-gun attacked Marufuji and TMDK at the end of the show. After the event, the eight Suzuki-gun members began working for Noah, and by March 15, the group established its dominance by winning all four of Noah's championships: Suzuki became the GHC Heavyweight Champion, Killer Elite Squad the GHC Tag Team Champions, Taichi the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, and El Desperado and Taka Michinoku the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

A year later, at Wrestle Kingdom 10, Okada defeated Tanahashi to retain the IWGP Heavyweight title; Nakamura beat Styles to retain the IWGP Intercontinental title; Honma and Makabe defeated Anderson and Gallows to capture the IWGP Tag Team title; Kushida beat Kenny Omega to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title; the Young Bucks won a four-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team title; Goto defeated Naito in a non-title match; Shibata defeated Ishii to capture the NEVER Openweight title; while Toru Yano and the Briscoes triumphed over Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, and Yujiro Takahashi to become the inaugural NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions.

On August 10, 2014, NJPW made two announcements. Firstly, Wrestle Kingdom 9 would be held at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2015. Secondly, NJPW revealed a partnership with Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling, which it approached about bringing the event to a new market. On November 4, GFW announced that it would present the event live on American pay-per-view television and that it had a PPV market of 125 million homes.

Wrestle Kingdom 9

Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2015. It was the 24th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the first event on the 2015 NJPW schedule. The event featured ten professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match, six of which were for championships.

Wrestle Kingdom has been described as "New Japan's major annual show" and the "equivalent" of WWE's WrestleMania pay-per-view (PPV) event. Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome was promoted as the "largest wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and was the 24th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, although previous events were held under different names.

The GFW version of the event was streamed worldwide (except in North America and Japan) on the Flipps application for Internet-connected smartphones, tablet computers and smart TVs. On Flipps, the show was available live and on-demand for 30 days after its initial airing.

On November 11, 2014, GFW announced that Jim Ross would be the lead announcer for its version of the event. It was Ross's first professional-wrestling broadcast since his 2013 departure from WWE. Ross attempted to obtain Mike Tenay of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) for color commentary, but TNA refused. Others considered for the job were John Pollock, Mauro Ranallo and Kevin Nash, before GFW settled on Matt Striker.

AXS TV, which acquired the rights to broadcast Wrestle Kingdom 9 from the TV Asahi Corporation, aired the event in five parts from October 9 to November 6, 2015, to viewers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Commentary was provided by Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett.

In the second match, the Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett, and Yujiro Takahashi faced New Japan's Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, and Tomoaki Honma. Takahashi received a Jarrett guitar shot meant for Honma, a 3D from Tencozy, and a "Kokeshi" diving headbutt from Honma before Honma pinned him for the victory at 5 minutes and 35 seconds.

Next, Tomohiro Ishii defended the NEVER Openweight Championship against Togi Makabe. Clotheslines, forearms, shoulder blocks, slaps, headbutts, sledgehammers, powerslams, powerbombs, and German suplexes were exchanged. Makabe won the match (and the title) with a running lariat and the "King Kong Knee Drop" from the top rope, followed by a pinfall at 12 minutes and 23 seconds.

In the sixth match, Ryusuke Taguchi defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega of the Bullet Club. Distractions by the Bullet Club's Young Bucks allowed Omega to spray Taguchi in the eyes with an aerosol can and broke Taguchi's ankle lock on Omega later in the match. Omega captured the championship after a snap dragon suplex, a bicycle knee strike, and the "One Winged Angel" (electric chair dropped into a one-handed driver), pinning the champion at 13 minutes and 20 seconds.

Wrestle Kingdom 9 drew 36,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, reportedly (accordingly to "Wrestleview.com" and the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter") the best attendance for a NJPW January 4 Tokyo Dome Show in 13 years. The event reportedly had 12,000 to 15,000 purchases in North America.

"Kobe Shimbun" "Daily Sports Online" called Tanahashi "Mr. Tokyo Dome" for winning his fifth consecutive Wrestle Kingdom main event in the arena. Jason Namako of "Wrestleview.com", who watched the Japanese version of the show via New Japan World, said that the event "proved one thing, "puroresu" is, beyond a shadow of doubt, indeed "ichiban"!!" Meanwhile, Aaron Oster of "The Baltimore Sun" wrote that "Wrestle Kingdom 9 has to be considered a success".

According to commentator Jim Ross, Japanese television producer TV Asahi did not contact the English-language team during the event; he and Striker announced "by our instincts and it seemed to work out pretty well". Ross also said, "Time will tell but if this was my last pro wrestling event, I picked a damn good one on which to go out on."

Another rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 9 was scheduled for February 14 at NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai between Togi Makabe and Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship. When Makabe was sidelined with influenza, NJPW stripped him of the title and scheduled another match, in which Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma for the now-vacant title. Ishii and Makabe had their title rematch on April 29, when Makabe regained the NEVER Openweight Championship.

Behind the scenes, Jericho became part of a group of people that started pushing for the show to air on American pay-per-view (PPV) for the first time since Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015. Some in NJPW felt that airing the show through NJPW World would be enough, hoping that the Jericho signing would increase subscriber numbers. While NJPW was now considered more popular than in 2015, when Wrestle Kingdom 9 did 14,000 buys on American PPV, it was noted that the 2018 show would take place early Thursday morning in the United States as opposed to a weekend like it did in 2015, which was seen as a major negative in terms of getting buys from the country. In late November, it was reported that NJPW had turned down Fite TV's offer for PPV rights outside of Japan and would not be allowing the event to air on American PPV, wanting their streaming service to be the only way to see the event live. On December 3, it was announced that the top matches from the show would air on AXS TV on January 6, 2018, as part of an 11-hour block of NJPW programming with additional matches airing between January 12 and February 9. Five matches, including the top three matches, will air on TV Asahi as part of a special episode of "World Pro Wrestling" on the night of January 4.

Wrestle Kingdom 12

Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4, 2018, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 27th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, which is NJPW's biggest annual event and has been called "the largest wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl".

The show was headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the 2017 G1 Climax, Tetsuya Naito, in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 2014. The second match of the show's "double main event" saw Kenny Omega defend the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Chris Jericho in a no disqualification match, the latter of whom returned to the NJPW ring after nearly 20 years away from the promotion.

Six other title matches also took place on the show with Hiroshi Tanahashi defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Jay White, Marty Scurll defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in a four-way match against Hiromu Takahashi, Kushida and Will Ospreay, Minoru Suzuki defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Hirooki Goto in a hair vs. hair match, Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) defending the IWGP Tag Team Championship against the 2017 World Tag League winners "Los Ingobernables de Japon" (Evil and Sanada), Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) defending the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship in a five-team gauntlet match and Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). All in all, the event featured ten matches (including one on the pre-show).

Wrestle Kingdom 12 was officially announced on August 13, 2017, during the finals of the 2017 G1 Climax. Jurina Matsui of SKE48 was appointed the special ambassador of the event. The event would air live through NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World, with English commentary provided by Kevin Kelly and Don Callis.
Takaaki Kidani announced that NJPW looked to get 30,000 fans in attendance for the show. Tickets for the event went on sale on October 25, 2017. NJPW was said to have been shocked at the large number of tickets sold outside of Japan with the situation being described as "like nothing before for any Japanese pro wrestling show in history". On November 27, NJPW announced that ticket sales were up 80% from the previous year with 20,000 tickets having already been sold. On December 25, the promotion announced that 30,000 tickets had been sold. Three days later, NJPW announced it would be making more seats available on the day on the show.

The event would feature a special appearance by Chris Jericho, wrestling his first NJPW match in nearly two decades against Kenny Omega. Billed as "Alpha vs. Omega", the match marked Jericho's first match outside of WWE since 1999. Jericho previously worked for NJPW in 1997, originally as the masked Super Liger, before returning to the Chris Jericho name. Jericho's last NJPW match before Wrestle Kingdom 12 took place on September 23, 1998, teaming with the late Black Tiger II in a loss to Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. He most recently worked for WWE in July 2017, but was now a free agent. NJPW color commentaror Don Callis, a mutual friend of Jericho and Omega, came up with the idea for the match between his fellow Winnipeggers. He pitched the idea to Jericho, expecting him to laugh it off, but Jericho instead was interested in the match, seeing parallels between it and the August 2017 fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Jericho finally realized that NJPW was serious about putting the match together, when four of the promotion's officials, including booker Gedo, flew to New York City for the first meeting between the two parties. After several weeks of negotiating, a deal for the match was reached, at which point Jericho, despite not being under a WWE contract, talked to the company's chairman Vince McMahon, who was said to have been "fine" with the idea of Jericho working a NJPW event. At that time, Jericho's appearance at Wrestle Kingdom 12 was scheduled to be a one-time deal. Jericho called the match a throwback to the 1980s, where wrestlers would travel overseas for matches and stated that the match would push promotions to think more and be more creative.

Wrestle Kingdom 12 featured ten professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito. The storyline behind the match dates back to 2013, when Naito won the G1 Climax tournament to earn a shot at Okada and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 8 on January 4, 2014. However, at that time, Naito, despite being a clean cut babyface, was disliked by NJPW fans, which led to the company changing their course of action, announcing a fan vote to determine whether the match between Okada and Naito or an IWGP Intercontinental Championship match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi would main event Wrestle Kingdom 8. Nakamura and Tanahashi won the vote, resulting in Okada and Naito losing their main event spot. Okada went on to defeat Naito in the match to retain the title. In the summer of 2015, Naito traveled to Mexico to work for the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, where he joined the villainous "Los Ingobernables" stable. Upon his return to NJPW, Naito, using the NJPW fans' rejection of him as a catalyst, completely reinvented his character, eventually leading to him forming the "Los Ingobernables de Japon" stable. Despite now being a villain, fans eventually started getting behind Naito with "Los Ingobernables de Japon" merchandise becoming NJPW's top seller. When Naito defeated Okada at Invasion Attack 2016 on April 10 to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time, he had the crowd solidly behind him. Naito eventually went on to lose the title back to Okada on June 19, 2016, at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall.
On August 13, 2017, Naito defeated Kenny Omega in the finals to win the 2017 G1 Climax. With Naito now being fully embraced by NJPW fans, this was seen as the conclusion of a four-year arc that started at the 2013 G1 Climax, where he was rejected by the same fans. Following the win, Naito gained possession of the Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate, which granted him a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12. On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Naito successfully defended the certificate against Tomohiro Ishii, while Kazuchika Okada successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Evil, setting up the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 12 between champion Okada and challenger Naito. The match was officially announced in a press conference the following day. As part of the build-up to the title match, Okada introduced a new submission hold, a cobra clutch, as a counter to Naito's finishing maneuver, "Destino". However, on December 18, in their final confrontation before Wrestle Kingdom 12, Naito managed to counter himself out of the hold and hit Okada with the "Destino", leaving him laid out. Okada has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship ever since defeating Naito at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, having successfully defended the title eight times, and enters the match as the longest-reigning champion in the title's history. This match would mark Okada's fourth consecutive and overall fifth Wrestle Kingdom main event, while Naito had never main evented the show before.
On November 5, 2017, at Power Struggle, Chris Jericho made a surprise return to NJPW, appearing in a video, where he challenged Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome. The challenge was quickly accepted by Omega, who had been engaged in a "Twitter feud" with his fellow Winnipegger over the past weeks. The match, contested for Omega's IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, was officially announced the following day. Due to the high-profile status of the match, Omega began petitioning for Wrestle Kingdom 12 to have a "double main event" much like the Wrestle Kingdom shows had had in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Omega stated that he agreed that Okada and Naito should have the final match of the show, but felt that he and Jericho should have the second to last match, claiming that just four months after the creation of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, he had already made it the number two title in NJPW over the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Jericho made his in person return at the December 11 show, attacking and bloodying Omega following his match, while also laying out a referee, a young lion and Don Callis. At a press conference the following day, Omega stated that with the attack Jericho had turned their upcoming "gentleman's contest" into a fight, before attacking his Wrestle Kingdom 12 opponent. During the same conference, NJPW officially announced that Wrestle Kingdom 12 would feature a double main event with the IWGP Heavyweight and United States Heavyweight Championship matches. Naito stated that he was disappointed with the decision, adding that NJPW would never become the number one promotion in the world as long as they were humoring WWE. On December 18, NJPW announced that, as a result of both Omega and Jericho demanding it, the match had been turned into a no disqualification match.

In the IWGP Intercontinental Championship match, Hiroshi Tanahashi defended the title against Jay White. White joined NJPW in January 2015 and worked for the promotion as a young lion until June 2016, when he left for an indefinite learning excursion to the United States, where he worked for Ring of Honor (ROH). During the 2017 G1 Climax, NJPW started airing vignettes for an individual dubbed "Switchblade", who was announced as making his debut on November 5 at Power Struggle. Following the main event of the show, where Tanahashi successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi, Switchblade was revealed as the returning Jay White, who confronted Tanahashi and challenged him to a title match at Wrestle Kingdom 12, before laying him out with the "Shellshock". The following day, NJPW officially announced the match between Tanahashi and White for Wrestle Kingdom 12. In December, Tanahashi was sidelined with a knee injury when an MRI discovered arthritis and water in his knee. However, as he had a long history of working hurt and not missing major shows, it was noted that the injury would have to be "unbearably bad" for him to miss Wrestle Kingdom 12. Tanahashi appeared at NJPW's December 18 show, assuring that he would be defending his title at Wrestle Kingdom 12, before being attacked by White, who targeted his injured knee.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 also featured the first-ever four-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, where Marty Scurll defended the title against Hiromu Takahashi, Kushida and Will Ospreay. The match was set up through a series of title challenges in the second half of 2017. After Kushida had successfully defended the title against El Desperado on September 16 at Destruction in Hiroshima, he was confronted by Takahashi, who was ready to challenge him to a title match. However, before Takahashi could complete his challenge, he was knocked out by Ospreay, who took the title match for himself and went on to defeat Kushida to become the new champion on October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling. Following the match, Takahashi again came out to issue a title challenge, but was again interrupted, this time by Scurll, who snapped his fingers and made his own challenge to Ospreay. This led to a match on November 5 at Power Struggle, where Scurll defeated Ospreay to become the new champion. Following the match, Scurll and Ospreay continued arguing, while Kushida came out to challenge Scurll to a title match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Finally, Takahashi also came out, this time wearing a helmet and gloves to prevent the other challengers from knocking him out or breaking his fingers, and made his own title challenge. Scurll then declared that he would take on all three challengers. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship has previously been defended in a three-way match, with Prince Devitt defending the title against Kota Ibushi and Low Ki at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, but this marked the first four-way for the title.
On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu made their return to NJPW from their overseas learning excursion, when they were revealed as Rocky Romero's new mystery team Roppongi 3K. Working under the names "Sho" and "Yoh", the two defeated Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions in their first match back. The following month at Power Struggle, Roppongi 3K also won the 2017 Super Jr. Tag Tournament by defeating Taguchi and ACH in the finals, becoming the first team to win the annual tournament as the reigning champions. Following the win, the two were challenged by The Young Bucks, which was accepted by Romero, who had significant history with the two involving the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and his previous team Roppongi Vice. Ever since their NJPW debut in October 2013, The Young Bucks had become synonymous with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with would mark the first match between the teams since Sho and Yoh's "rebirth" as Roppongi 3K.

Also at Power Struggle, Cody confronted Kota Ibushi after he had been defeated by Tanahashi in the main event, offering to defend the ROH World Championship against him at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Initially announced the following day as a potential title match, the match instead became a non-title "special singles match", when Cody lost the ROH World Championship to Dalton Castle at ROH's Final Battle on December 15. Prior to the Chris Jericho announcement, Ibushi had been seen as a possible opponent for Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12, with the two former tag team partners having teased a match against each other since Ibushi's June 2017 return to NJPW. In the build-up to the match, Cody, Omega's Bullet Club stablemate, compared Ibushi to Brutus Beefcake and Omega to Hulk Hogan, claiming that Ibushi was nothing more than a sidekick in their team.
On December 11, "Los Ingobernables de Japon" members Evil and Sanada defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) to win the 2017 World Tag League. Traditionally, the winners of the tournament have earned a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship at the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and following the win, Evil and Sanada called out reigning champions, Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer), and challenged them to a title match, which they accepted. The match was officially announced the following day. Evil and Sanada entered the World Tag League as two thirds of the reigning NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions with stablemate Bushi, but decided to put that title on hold in order to challenge for the tag team title at the biggest event of the year. The three were looking to defend the title the day after Wrestle Kingdom 12, but NJPW instead announced that they would defend it against the Guerrillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale on December 17. Bushi insinuated that NJPW wanted to have a six-man tag team title match in the Tokyo Dome and were looking to get the title off him, Evil and Sanada. On December 17, Guerrillas of Destiny and Fale defeated the "Los Ingobernables de Japon" trio to become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Two days later, it was announced that the new champions would defend the title in a five-team gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

At Power Struggle, after Minoru Suzuki had defeated Toru Yano to retain the NEVER Openweight Championship, he was challenged by Hirooki Goto. Suzuki, however, turned down the challenge, stating that he was done with Goto, having first defeated him to win the title in April and again to retain the title in June. On November 18, Goto pinned Suzuki in their opening match in the 2017 World Tag League and afterwards made another challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship. On December 11, when Suzuki again turned down Goto's challenge, stating he had nothing to offer in return for another title match, Goto offered to put his hair on the line in the match. On December 17, Suzuki tried to cut Goto's hair with clippers, but was thwarted, which led to him shaving young lion Tetsuhiro Yagi instead. After being pinned by Goto again the following day, Suzuki accepted his challenge for a title match, stating that the match would be one-on-one with no seconds at ringside and with the loser getting his head shaved. The match was officially announced the following day.