Official: GFW to present NJPW's January 4 Wrestle Kingdom show on PPV

[The Dragon Saga]

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.

#JoinTheForce
#GFWJan4
www.GlobalForceWrestling.com

This is a big breakthrough in North America for NJPW. This should be very interesting.

 

[BaconBits]

That looks like it might be pretty cool. I will probably check it out.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

Just like a predicted. Should be interesting to see this play out.

 

[Alex]

So is GFW an actual promotion or that just uses talent from other promotions. I'm kinda confused

 

[ABMorales787]

IGWP heavyweight championship?

 

[Thriller Ant]

IGWP heavyweight championship?

I didn't even notice that at first.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

This is great news for wrestling fans around the world. I've been following New Japan for the past three years and I've seen a lot of people saying that the Japanese is kind of the problem for not getting into the promotion, so this, will most certainly give fans a new look to a different kind of wrestling. With New Japan and ROH being broadcast on PPV around the US, we can expect some good competition for the #2 spot in the U.S. as long as New Japan really digs into this market.

As for the concept of GFW, I have to admit, I can't still grasp it very well.

 

[The Gold Standard]

Can't wait. I'm ecstatic about a new promotion. I'm hoping GFW doesn't end up being a pay-per-date promotion. I'd like to see contracts among the workers so those workers are in just that promotion. That way it doesn't have that "indy" feel.

Plus seeing Shelton Benjamin on weekly episodic television in NA would make me mark out.

 

[ABMorales787]

Can't wait. I'm ecstatic about a new promotion. I'm hoping GFW doesn't end up being a pay-per-date promotion. I'd like to see contracts among the workers so those workers are in just that promotion. That way it doesn't have that "indy" feel.

Plus seeing Shelton Benjamin on weekly episodic television in NA would make me mark out.

It's gonna be talent exchange. If Jarrett actually gets talent.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

He wrote more then this but it was mostly running through the card already for Wrestle Kingdom. Tanahashi vs. Okada, etc.

Jeff Jarrett has confirmed that NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 9 will show on US PPV under the Global Force Wrestling banner on 4/1. The show will air live from Japan beginning at 2am EST. The press release said that the show would be 4 hours long, odd considering Wrestle Kingdom is usually 5 hours long. This may be for two reasons. To condense the time of the PPV as a US audience isn't used to watching a wrestling PPV for 5 hours. Or as a back-up depending on how the negotiations with ROH went.

Jarrett met with ROH's COO Joe Koff in ROH's Baltimore office last week to discuss talent contracts as ROH has a clause in their talents contracts that they can't appear on a non-ROH PPV or televised programming. NJPW have been putting over ROH World Tag champs reDRagon, Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly in the Jr. Tag Tournament and it's probable that they will beat The Time Splitters, Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA at Power Struggle to win the IWGP Jr. Tag titles. NJPW also want the ROH World Championship defended on the show and have even offered an upper card match placement, but if ROH and Jarrett's GFW can't come to an agreement then NJPW might air the first hour in Japan featuring reDRagon, should they win on Sunday and the ROH World Championship plus any other ROH talent scheduled to appear on the show.

A report surfaced yesterday online stating that talks between ROH and GFW had broken down but I've not heard anything more then I said last week. Jarrett met with Joe Koff, Delirious and Court Bauer last Thursday two weeks ago to discuss the matter and to smooth things over. He was also looking for advertisement on ROH's Final Battle PPV and their nationally syndicated TV show. The meeting lasted a couple of hours.

 

[nightmare]

So..... is GFW just a talent agency? This sounds much more like Middleman, Inc. than a wrestling promotion.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

How does Jarrett even negotiate with no official roster or TV schedule?

 

[The Dragon Saga]

How does Jarrett even negotiate with no official roster or TV schedule?

Is that what he's supposed to be? Lot of people are thinking he's going to be a distributor and content provider for international promotions into the US under the GFW banner, using some talent as GFW roster members combined with international talent loaned to him by NJPW and AAA or whoever, to create more awareness for those promotions through those wrestlers representing the promotions.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

Is that what he's supposed to be? Lot of people are thinking he's going to be a distributor and content provider for international promotions into the US under the GFW banner, using some talent as GFW roster members combined with international talent loaned to him by NJPW and AAA or whoever, to create more awareness for those promotions through those wrestlers representing the promotions.

So it's not a brand, it's just a promotional agency? I mean that's cool but I just like things to be clear.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I think it's going to be a modern day NWA but it will have its own representatives.

 

[nightmare]

So he just shows up at another promotion, calls dibs on a few of their guys for the night and slaps a few GFW stickers around? Well isnt that nifty.


Whatever he is getting paid for whatever he is doing, I will do it for half. Boom, bitch- you just got undercut! Welcome to nightmare's travelling talent exchange extravaganza & taco truck. Here, have a sticker.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

After Power Struggle the card for this show looks to be:

IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) #346

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

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championships
ROH's reDRagon (c) vs. Young Bucks vs. Time Splitters vs. Forever Hooligans

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship
Rysuke Taguchi (c) vs. Bullet Club's Kenny Omega

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

Jim Ross to be doing the English play by play at Wrestle Kingdom. That's sure to draw in some amount of people alone.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Someone can correct me otherwise but I'm pretty sure the voice over guy is or was TNA's?

Must be said, looks good.

 

[rbv13]

Jim Ross to be doing the English play by play at Wrestle Kingdom. That's sure to draw in some amount of people alone.

Major news today for GFW. This should excite a lot of fans in the English speaking markets. By far the biggest accomplishment of Jarrett's career (That starting a major promotion thing in at a close second).

 

[nightmare]

The card looks good & JR is just an added bonus. I'll be watching this for sure.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

Correct me if I'm wrong Dragon Saga but this should be the PPV that reDRagon defends the IWGP Junior Tag titles against Time Splitters/Bucks/Hooligans right?

 

[The Butcher]

JR put it over the top. I'm laying down the green for this.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Correct me if I'm wrong Dragon Saga but this should be the PPV that reDRagon defends the IWGP Junior Tag titles against Time Splitters/Bucks/Hooligans right?

Yup.

And the ROH World Championship will be defended also. However, the issue people don't know about this show is, traditionally it's a five hour show, the US PPV version is going to be four hours, they have 10 matches on paper and they could be adding an extra three. They can't fit all these matches into a four hour broadcast because last year WK's entrances and stuff topped WrestleMania, they're real elaborate. Shinsuke Nakamura being led to the ring by a group of pole dancers, the guitarist from Iron Maiden playing out Tanahashi, Devitt's walking through a graveyard entrance, Time Splitters driving into the arena in a delorean, Bullet Club with a bazooka - if they fit all of it into a four hour broadcast it won't showcase NJPW how it should, so there's going to be a Japanese PPV version and a US PPV version. The US PPV version will be two or three matches short.

They probably won't cut the reDRagon or ROH World Championship match as both of those will appeal to an American audience, but it really depends on ROH who from what Meltzer, etc, are saying, still haven't came to an agreement with GFW. ROH talents matches could be moved to the Japanese version before the US PPV version. It's yet to be seen.

 

[ABMorales787]

I've heard NJPW might get their own streaming service for old content and PPVs like WWE Network via internet making it worldwide. That would shoot GFW on the foot.