NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9 To Air In The U.S. Under GFW Banner

[ABMorales787]

NASHVILLE — Global Force Wrestling is proud to announce that the first event under its banner will be in conjunction with New Japan Pro Wrestling and its Jan. 4 show from the Tokyo Dome.

“GFW Presents New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 9” will air live in North America at 2 a.m. ET on Jan. 4, which is 4 p.m. in Tokyo. The four-hour telecast also will air in primetime in North America at 7 p.m. ET on your pay-per-view provider, including DirecTV, Dish, AT&T U-verse, Comcast, Verizon Fios and all cable systems in the United States, and in Canada on Bell ExpressVu TV, Rogers, Shaw, Sasktel and Telus. Check your local listings for availability. The show also will be available on the “Flipps” app on iTunes or Android.

“Wrestle Kingdom 9” will be the 24th consecutive year for the Jan. 4 dome event, which kicks off the year in Japan and annually is the largest wrestling show in the world outside of the United States, drawing in excess of 40,000 fans.

“This is one of the great events on the wrestling calendar every year, and for GFW to have the opportunity to bring it to the American audience is an honor and a privilege,” GFW founder and CEO Jeff Jarrett said. “This event has a history that involves not only the greatest names in Japanese wrestling history but some of the greatest names in U.S. wrestling history.”

NJPW founder and wrestling icon Antonio Inoki has appeared on the Jan. 4 dome show five times. Other legends to appear include Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, the Steiner Brothers, Big Van Vader, Randy Savage, Brock Lesnar, the Great Muta, the Great Kabuki, Masahiro Chono and Riki Choshu.

This year’s card is headlined by an IGWP heavyweight title match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada. The Bullet Club, of which Jarrett is a member along with A.J. Styles and IWGP tag team champions Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows, is expected to appear on the show as well.

The show will be available in English and in Japanese via the second audio program (SAP) button on your TV. GFW will reveal the North American announcers for the event in the near future.

It's "IWGP", not "IGWP". Bonehead. Yup. This is Jeff Jarrett's grand scheme. To air New Japan's biggest show and say it's his. Fucking prick. It's bad enough that he ditched TNA after handing BFG over to Wrestle-1. But anyway.


New Japan will be broadcasting it's signature event on the signature date of wrestling. January 4th. 2 A.M. ET. Mother of God, that's 5 A.M. West Coast. It's the usual 4+ hour extravaganza that will be headlined by Kazuchika Okada challenging Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Okada won the annual G1 Climax while Tanahashi regained the World title from AJ Styles at King Of Pro Wrestling. The two men have been feuding for several years and have headlined previous editions of the show. They look to once again tear it up and this time to an international audience.

Other rumblings surrounding the event is the potential of ROH not only sending talent over to Japan, but also having their Championships defended on the spectacle as well. New Japan is said to be very high on the idea, but recent talks between Jeff Jarrett and ROH seem to point to Jarrett not wanting it due to them not wanting a partnership to Jarrett's fairytale promo- I mean, promotion under construction. If that's true, all I can say is.... Jarrett, fuck off. You lose everything by not allowing ROH and New Japan to work as they were before you butted in. You may be putting the PPV in the U.S., but it's not like you're creating a major milestone. They've done it before and can very well do it again.

The rest of the card is speculatory at this point. A story between the ex-WWE, Yoshi-Tatsu and AJ Styles has been placed and might take place in the show as well. Any further speculation or corrections are welcomed.

 

[ABMorales787]

​

It seems the card is set for this event:

• Hiroshi Tanahashi defends the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. Okada first won the G1 Climax tournament to secure his spot in the main event. Hiroshi would later defeat AJ Styles at King Of Pro Wrestling to win the gold for the record setting 7th time. These two have headlined many a PPV and the 2013 edition of this show as well.
• Ryusuke Taguchi will defend the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship against the newest member of The Bullet Club, Kenny Omega. Omega spent time saying he would not join the villainous "gaijin" team given he didn't see himself as one. It didn't stop Yujiro Takahashi. Why stop him?
• Shinsuke Nakamura will defend the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi. Ibushi made the challenge to Shinsuke at Power Struggle following Shinksuke's defense against Katsuyori Shibata. Given the incredible run Shinsuke has had with the title, headlining several PPV's for the title, one has to imagine Kota would get a massive profile boost if he wins. Take note WWE.
• Tomohiro Ishii defends the NEVER Openweight Championship against Makabe Togi. Everyone loves Makabe Togi. Sorry, I follow a bit of NJPW, but not that closely. Fill the blanks if possible. Ishii is the first 2x holder of the belt if anything.
• Minoru Suzuki takes on Kazuchi Sakuraba in a shoot fight. The winner can only be decided by knockout or submission.
• ReDRagon, the current ROH World Tag Team Champions defeated the Time Splitters at Power Struggle to win the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship. They will defend against the Time Splitters, The Forever Hooligans, and those pissants that allegedly wrestle called the Young Bucks. I really hate them, sorry.
• Jim Ross is gonna be calling the action. No partner has been announced yet, but it seems it will be Mike Tenay. A lot of people say that's great, but I say having two play-by-play historians is gonna cause a damn mess. Ah well. As long as it's not fucking Matt Striker.

It promises to be a fun show. ROH is said to add more matches to the card plus other unconfirmed ones, but that's been a bit of a controversial issue as Sinclair and Jarrett can't seem to come to an agreement. Given the show is over 4 hours and their U.S. timeslot is limited to 4 hours, I'm banking on ROH matches not airing aside from the Jr. Tag Title match.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

On January 4th 2015, New Japan Pro Wrestling presents their biggest show of the year - Wrestle Kingdom 9 - at the Tokyo Dome event, with an already announced sell-out crowd of 50.000 roaring fans. In the most recent years, New Japan has seen a rise of popularity by a wide margin, and thanks to that, they will make their debut on America's PPV business, in a partnership with Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling. The PPV American broadcast will have English commentary, with the team of WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross and Matt Striker, while the broadcast on New Japan World, will be way cheaper ($8.95) but in Japanese only.

DirecTV and InDemand 3 will make the PPV available live with replays, while other distributors, such as InDemand1 and InDemand2 will broadcast it the day after. As of this writing, this is the announced card for the show, with the preview and some predictions made by Wrestling Observer's David Meltzer.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title – Four Way Tag Match
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly (c) vs. Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson

[YOUTUBE]awrwhBd8J1Q[/YOUTUBE]​

This match is going to be fast paced, partially because with strict time limitations, they may have to do the match in far shorter than an optimum amount of time. Also, historically, jr. heavyweight matches don’t play as well at the Tokyo Dome. But this will be the match filled with incredible moves and should be the highlight of the early part of the show.

Special Six-Man Tag Team Match
Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomoaki Honma & TenKoji​

Kojima & Tenzan are the veteran tag team, one of the best in Japanese history. Both are in their early 40s. Kojima can still go. Tenzan moves slow and when he does trademark moves like his flying spin kick, he barely gets off the ground. Every now and then he has a night where he can drink from the Fountain of Youth. Honma is the best underdog worker in the business. People will be into the match hoping he’ll win, and most likely, he’ll be the one to lose the fall. Takahashi does a playboy gimmick. On big shows, he usually comes out with hot models in bikinis, although he may not here since Karen Jarrett is supposed to debut at ringside during the show. So that means a lot of Americanized distraction and interference.

Special Tag Team Match
T. Yano, N. Marufuji, M. Nicholls & S. Haste vs. T. Iizuka, D. Boy Smith Jr., L. Archer & S. X Benjamin​

This will probably be a rushed match. Yano vs. Iizuka, a battle of long-time tag partners, is the backbone of the match, a program that usually is built around choking by Iizuka using the tag ropes, undoing the turnbuckle padding by Yano, and low blow spots. There is also a good shot at interference by Taka Michinoku, Taichi and Desperado, who are part of Suzuki-gun, the same group Iizuka’s team is with. The keys to this match are the positioning of Marufuji, the GHC heavyweight champion and top star from Pro Wrestling NOAH, and the obvious Haste & Nicholls vs. Smith Jr. & Archer battle, which is expected to be a NOAH feud going forward. With New Japan now having a strong financial involvement in NOAH, there will be more of a NOAH presence on New Japan major shows in 2015, as well as more of a New Japan presence on NOAH’s big shows. This match will kick it off, and it wouldn’t surprise me to have a NOAH vs. New Japan angle come out of this.

Special Singles Match – Full Conclusion Rules
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki​

Two legends of MMA, with Suzuki as one of the last proteges of Karl Gotch, and Sakuraba as the best protégé of Billy Robinson. The early part of the match should be rolling on the ground for submissions, and it should pick up to a slapfest with teased ten count finishes, as well as built around securing the Gotch piledriver, and all sorts of submissions like chokes, heel hooks and armbars. This can only end via submission or knockout. This match is likely to be either great, or a big disappointment. Sakuraba is limited by injuries, but his match two years ago with Shinsuke Nakamura on the Dome show was a match of the year candidate. Suzuki is usually content to get over based on his “older bully” role and his great facials, but when called upon to headline, he can be incredible.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title
Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Kenny Omega​

Taguchi is a smooth worker, who may pull out a flip dive in tribute to long-time partner Prince Devitt, but mostly works to set up his ankle lock submission. Omega is an incredibly underrated talent with a wide assortment of unique moves. This is Omega’s first match while being part of The Bullet Club, and this should be a title change.

NEVER Openweight Title
Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Togi Makabe

[YOUTUBE]ZwgcLu1Q_pg[/YOUTUBE]​

This will be a battle of stiff clotheslines, hard chops, with highlights including a delayed superplex by Ishii and perhaps a German superplex by Makabe. But it’s more two guys standing there who refuse to go down after hard clotheslines and shoulderblocks in a battle of attrition.

IWGP Tag Team Titles
DOC Gallows & Karl Anderson (c) vs. Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata​

Anderson usually builds around his gunstun, and blocks of it early. Shibata & Goto are best friends from high school, and had a fantastic feud with each other, but have not fully clicked as a team when it comes to blow away matches. This is a rematch of the tag tournament final, a good but not great match, which Goto & Shibata won. But it is the right time and place for the title change.

Special Singles Match
AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito

[YOUTUBE]203cXP_cBpo[/YOUTUBE]​

This is where you see just how far in advance booking was laid out. Naito beat Styles in the G-1, which was to set up the Naito vs. Okada singles match. Styles also lost twice to Tanahashi. My gut feeling is this is being put high on this card so the winner can challenge the Okada vs. Tanahashi winner on one of the New Beginnings shows. This is the right time and place for Styles to get the clean win, since he hasn’t had his rematch for the title since Tanahashi beat him in October.

IWGP Intercontinental Title
Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kota Ibushi

[YOUTUBE]7OuTrO6AGI4[/YOUTUBE]​

Nakamura took this nothing of a title, created in a U.S. tournament for MVP, and has made it one of the strongest No. 2 belts of the last two decades. The Nakamura vs. Tanahashi feud over the belt, which headlined last year’s Tokyo Dome show, raised the profile, and this match could headline a PPV easily. If their first match is any indication, this should be a match of the year candidate. It’s got all the dynamics, two of the best guys in the business with a big show feel. They will likely work this for Ibushi to work as the underdog coming from behind and getting a lot of near falls. Nakamura has dominated the belt for the last two-and–a-half years, which has kept him away from the IWGP belt. While he’s dropped it three times (to La Sombra, Tanahashi and Fale), he always wins it back. To me, for 2015, I’d have Ibushi win the title here, and then have Nakamura pick up some wins, leading to both Ibushi and Nakamura challenging for the IWGP belt.

IWGP Heavyweight Title
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada

[YOUTUBE]nZkV-mBD7tU[/YOUTUBE]​

The score after three years is Okada with three wins, Tanahashi with two, and one draw. They’ve kept these two apart for 15 months since Okada’s last win. All of those stats lead one to believe Tanahashi takes it. Really, it doesn’t matter, because if you’ve got Styles, Nakamura and Ibushi waiting in the wings, plus you can always bring back guys like Suzuki, and even Nagata, Goto, Fale, Kojima and Anderson, there is a long list of potential big show and small show title defenses that either could do. For Tanahashi, the moves to watch are the Texas cloverleaf, sling blade and of course the high fly flow. If the undercard doesn’t go over and these guys get their 25 minutes, or more, there should be a missed high fly flow early. Okada’s key moves are the red ink (STF/camel clutch combo), tombstone piledriver and the rainmaker. Okada has also vowed to introduce a new move on the show that will spell the difference. Whether this is good or bad depends on your point of view, but even if this match lives up to Okada’s prognostications, there will be no “This is awesome” chants here.

 

[rmp0012002]

I don't like Jarretts involvement in anything. I think he's just using promotions to promote himself and GFW is just a empty name. He still also has a very good share of stock in TNA so I just look at Jarrett as a schemer.

 

[Papa Pillman]

IWGP Intercontinental Title
Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kota Ibushi

[YOUTUBE]7OuTrO6AGI4[/YOUTUBE]​

Striker's passionate description of Nakamura is absolutely brilliant and powerful. Everything that he says is 100% truth and (I very rarely, if EVER, say this about anything) I couldn't have said it better myself.

That video should be required viewing for any wrestling fan who has been living under a rock large enough to still be ignorant about Nakamura.

If you truly love pro wrestling on any level, click the video above and at least watch the first 3 minutes and 15 seconds.