In Part 1 we looked at the 22+ year tradition of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s January 4th Tokyo Dome shows. Now, here in Part 2, we’ll cover all the matches on the 2015 edition in great detail, and give predictions on who is most likely to come out on top. Plus, we’ll go over all the details on the various ways you can watch this year’s show, live or on delay.
The Card
As many of you probably already know, this year’s show will be live on traditional pay-per-view in North America, thanks to Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Wrestling. Of course, that means trying to fit the entire 10-match show, plus 15-minute intermission, into a strict four-hour time block (in recent years the Dome show has tended to run somewhere between 4.5-5 hours). Will they be able to pull it off? Probably. But it also means some of the matches will likely not get the time they deserve, and that’s unfortunate.
0. New Japan Rumble: I’m listing this as “match zero” because it will not be a part of the four-hour GFW PPV broadcast. However, if you subscribe to New Japan World, the match will stream live there. The New Japan Rumble will be a 15-man match under the same Royal Rumble rules you probably know and love. I’ve read elsewhere that the time intervals between participants will likely be 60 seconds, but I’m unsure if that was actually confirmed. Expect this to include guys like Yuji Nagata and Captain New Japan who aren’t on the main show this year, as well as include some surprises who aren’t normally seen anymore, perhaps someone like Super Strong Machine. Also, since Jushin Thunder Liger and El Desperado are in the midst of a violent feud (both men attacked each other’s masks on the last two Korakuen Hall shows a few weeks ago) but neither are booked on the main card, it seems likely that they will both be involved here and further their feud. The two will meet in their first singles match the following night at the 1/5 Korakuen Hall show, with Liger’s NWA Jr. Title on the line.
Prediction: Uh. It’s really not important who wins this, like at all, but let’s go with Manabu Nakanishi I guess? He’s big and strong and stuff (though he can barely move at this point, so I’m happy he’s not on the main card!), winning a battle royale would make sense.
1. IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title- reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) © vs. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs. Timesplitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov): Yes, folks, this is the opener of the PPV show, as has become yearly tradition in recent years. Three of these same four teams were involved in an opening four-way tag for the junior tag titles at last year’s Dome, with the current ROH Tag Team & IWGP Jr. Tag Team champions replacing TAKA Michinoku & Taichi of Suzuki-gun. Last year’s match only got ten-and-a-half minutes and was still an awesome spotfest, so here’s hoping this year’s match will get at least as much time, if not a couple minutes more. reDRagon is obviously a pretty big improvement on TAKA/Taichi in 2015, so this match could be even better than that one, unless of course it only gets 6-8 minutes or something. Oh well, it will be really neat to hear Jim Ross call a Young Bucks match either way.
Prediction: Everyone is predicting the Timesplitters get their belts back here by beating reDRagon, since they put over reDRagon a few weeks ago in the ROH Tag Team Title match on their Final Battle PPV show. I’d like to say something different but that does make the most amount of sense. Personally I would prefer to see either Forever Hooligans (who are criminally underused at this point because they are fantastic all-around characters and wrestlers) or the Young Bucks (who have combined their spotfest matches with super-obnoxious, crotch-chopping personas so well that it is honestly amazing) go over, but it will probably be the Timesplitters.
2. BULLET CLUB (Jeff Jarrett & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma: Originally this was supposed to be a tag team match with Jarrett on one side and the recently returned Yoshitatsu (yes, all one word, that’s how they write his name now) on the other, but Tatsu took the Styles Clash wrong late last year and unfortunately doesn’t look like he can return to the ring for a while (there’s even a chance his career is over, which would be really sad considering he looked set for a big push back in his original home promotion of New Japan). The match was thus reworked as a six-man tag team match.
Jarrett joined the BULLET CLUB in probably my favorite angle of 2014, back at the G1 Climax final in August. At the end of what was essentially the G1 3rd place bout between AJ Styles and Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jarrett and longtime associate Scott D’Amore ran out, ostensibly to save Tanahashi from a BULLET CLUB post-match attack. However, Jarrett then slowly revealed his trademark guitar had, yes, a BULLET CLUB logo on it, and then he of course broke it over Tanahashi’s head (credit to user doomsday519 on Tumblr for the GIF). This kind of angle worked so well in New Japan in part because the promotion does so few American-style angles, showing the value of a less-is-more booking philosophy. And of course, it was just really cool for most of us to see Jarrett show up here and break a guitar over someone’s head.
But anyway, the months afterward were spent building up Yoshitatsu against Jarrett and the BULLET CLUB- he even showed up and broke another guitar over Tatsu’s head in the fall- so that makes the necessary change of direction hurt a bit. This match is quite likely to be kept short, and given the age of TenKoji and the, frankly, lack of talent of Fale & Yujiro, that’s probably for the best. Honma is the best underdog in all of pro wrestling though, and the crowds always get behind him even though he almost literally takes the fall in every match he’s in.
Prediction: Honma takes the fall and the BULLET CLUB wins.
3. Toru Yano & Naomichi Marufuji & TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls) vs. Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Shelton X Benjamin & Takashi Iizuka): Another match that will likely be kept short, this is the latest chapter of the Yano-Iizuka feud that started all the way back on May 25th. Yano has been in a weird on-again, off-again feud with Suzuki-gun leader Minoru Suzuki for years (the gist of which is basically: Suzuki is obviously way better than Yano, but the loveable cheating Yano loveably cheats or lucks his way to victory most of the time anyway; for example, at last year’s Dome show he pinned Suzuki when the Great Muta, his tag team partner, grew furious with Yano and tried to blow green mist in his own partner’s face, only for Yano to duck and Suzuki to get misted instead!), and at the Yokohama Arena show on 5/25/14, it was Yano and his longtime partner Takashi Iizuka against Minoru Suzuki & Shelton X Benjamin. Iizuka shockingly turned on his partner, leaving the CHAOS unit for Suzuki-gun. The two have feuded ever since, mostly in comedic tag team matches.
They finally met in their first singles match on the 12/20/14 Korakuen Hall show, which, as is typical for an Iizuka match, ended in a disqualification. Most of Suzuki-gun ran in to beat Yano down, but shockingly Naomichi Marufuji, Shane Haste, and Mikey Nicholls of Pro Wrestling NOAH ran out (to an ENORMOUS ovation, it should be noted) to make the save for him! Yano then announced the three men would be his partners against Suzuki-gun in this match.
There’s a few other interesting things to note here, mostly involving the NOAH participation. The struggling NOAH, which must run almost all of their biggest shows now at the 2100-seat Korakuen, has been working with New Japan for years. New Japan typically will send some of their older undercard guys who can still go but simply have no real place in the main events in modern NJPW to help NOAH out in their main events. For instance, Yuji Nagata recently reigned as GHC Heavyweight Champion this past year, and Satoshi Kojima will be challenging Marufuji for the same title later this month at Korakuen. Apparently New Japan has now acquired some kind of significant financial interest in NOAH, so expect there to be even more interpromotional matches and feuds going forward. One feud they’re looking to set up for the future is between gaijin (foreigner) tag teams of the Killer Elite Squad, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer, and The Mighty Don’t Kneel of Australians Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls. The feud will likely take place mostly on NOAH shows, but is expected to start here.
Prediction: Believe it or not this is actually one of the harder matches to predict, at least to me. There’s no chance GHC Champion Marufuji is losing a fall here, and NOAH likes to protect the TMDK tag team pretty heavily as well. That leaves the popular Yano as the only guy on his team who is likely to lose a fall. On the Suzuki-gun side, DBS & Archer & Benjamin are all relatively well-protected in New Japan, though Iizuka could lose though. I think I’m gonna go with the Yano/NOAH team here, with Yano getting a pin on Iizuka as revenge for turning on him, but honestly it could go either way.
4. UWF Rules- Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki: These two old ex-shootfighters have been engaged in an extremely physical rivalry over the last few months. Both were proteges of famed “shooters” of the past, with Sakuraba a protégé of Billy Robinson and Suzuki one of the very last protégés of Karl Gotch (hence his version of the Cradle Piledriver being called a “Gotch-style Piledriver”). They took very different paths to get here, as Suzuki was one of the original (and arguably the best) fighters in what was essentially shoot pro wrestling, Pancrase (think early MMA without punches or ground striking and with rope breaks). Meanwhile, Sakuraba started in the shoot-style but worked pro wrestling promotion UWF-I, before becoming the biggest Japanese star of the legitimate mixed martial arts promotion PRIDE. Both would ultimately return to their pro wrestling routes, Suzuki first as a prolific freelancer in 2003 who finally became a New Japan regular many years later and Sakuraba straight to New Japan as a “big show” part-timer in 2012.
The fact that New Japan managed to avoid doing this relatively obvious feud for so long speaks to the strength of their booking, but we’re finally here and this match has a lot of potential to be great. Both men are strong at their type of professional wrestling, working the gimmick of the real “shooter” who can appear uncooperative (even though in reality they’re not, so essentially they’re working that they’re shooting, if that makes any sense!) and is always one quick armbar or sleeper away from victory.
The bout will be fought under UWF rules, which means it can end only in knockout, submission, or referee stoppage, and will also be broken up into five-minute rounds (I think? I’m actually not 100% sure if the rounds gimmick will be involved or not, as I can’t find anything to decisively confirm or deny this; but it will definitely involve the knockout/submission/referee stoppage only rules, with no pinfalls).
Prediction: I want to say Suzuki is going to win, but my gut is that Sakuraba is going over here, even though I think that’s pretty counter-productive considering Suzuki works a much more full schedule than the broken-down Sakuraba. Don’t get me wrong though, this match will probably be very good!
5. NEVER Openweight Title- Tomohiro Ishii © vs. Togi Makabe: The NEVER Openweight Title originally began as the top belt for the NEVER offshoot brand (it stands for New Blood, Evolution, Valiantly, Eternal, Radical, since I’m sure you were dying to know that), established in August of 2010. The shows were based on showcasing New Japan’s younger talent and later included wrestlers from indie promotions, wrestling in extremely tiny buildings like Tokyo’s Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, capacity 290! The “promotion” eventually got its own championship in October 2012, with Masato Tanaka (yes, THAT Masato Tanaka, ECW fans) winning a two-day tournament, beating Karl Anderson in the finals to claim the title.
Oddly enough, that two-day tournament to determine their first champion would be the last “NEVER” shows ever promoted by New Japan! Still, the championship has continued on since as basically the mid-card title, especially with the elevation of the IWGP Intercontiental Title to more of a secondary main event title by Shinsuke Nakamura in recent years. The NEVER belt has basically taken the place of what the IC belt was before Nakamura got his hands on it. Given the caliber of challenger though, this is actually a bigger than usual NEVER title match, which I suppose makes sense given that it’s the Tokyo Dome!
Ishii is an interesting case study in getting over despite your booking. Originally, the former indie worker was little more than a “loss post” for the CHAOS unit, frequently taking the fall in tag team matches. However, the short and stout heavyweight (who earned the nickname “Stone Pitbull”) became a cult fan favorite with the live crowds, particularly in Osaka and at Korakuen Hall, for his tremendous capability for taking punishment and his frequently fantastic matches. His participation in the 2013 G1 Climax and, especially, a classic, brutal contest he had with Katsuyori Shibata during that tournament was a big turning point for him, and he started getting booked much more strongly since.
This is his second reign with the NEVER title, as he won the belt back from the man who beat him for it, Yujiro Takahashi, on October 13th. Ishii’s challenger for the Dome is Togi Makabe, the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion who can dish out and take punishment right up there with anyone. Thus this is a highly anticipated battle that will probably resemble “traditional” Japanese professional wrestling more than anything else on the show: two bulls who will stand there, delivering shoulder blocks and hard chops and kicks, both refusing to go down. It will be a hell of a battle, and probably one of the best things on the show.
Prediction: I like Ishii and all, but I’d be pretty shocked if he went over Makabe here. As mentioned, Makabe is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and for all of Ishii’s popularity he’s just not quite at that level, and probably never will be. Maybe I’m wrong, and I almost hope I am, but I think Makabe goes over and takes the belt.
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title- Ryusuke Taguchi © vs. Kenny Omega: Taguchi is a solid professional wrestler whose career was stalled quite a bit by a hip injury in 2013. It kept him out of action from June of that year until January 5th, 2014, when he returned to feud with his former Apollo 55 tag team partner Prince Devitt. The feud would not last long, since Devitt was about to depart for NXT a few months later, but Taguchi did go over Devitt to end the feud in early April. In September Taguchi won the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title for the second time in his career, defeating KUSHIDA for the belt.
Omega, meanwhile, had been a regular gaijin for the Dramatic Dream Team promotion (a combination junior & comedy federation that he was honestly a perfect fit for, given his mix of a wacky charisma and jaw-dropping aerial moves) since 2008. Starting in 2010 he also made occasional appearances in New Japan, mainly as part of the Golden☆Lovers tag team alongside Kota Ibushi. The two reigned as IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champions from October 2010 through January 2011. Omega also took part in four of New Japan’s yearly Best of the Super Juniors tournament (basically the G1 except for junior wrestlers), in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014, but never made it past the semifinals. However, throughout this entire run he was still a DDT contracted wrestler and never appeared in anything close to a full schedule for New Japan.
That changed just recently, when Omega finally signed with New Japan following the expiration of his DDT contract on October 26th, 2014. At his original press conference to announce the signing on October 3rd, Omega pledged that he would not follow the lead of many New Japan gaijin by joining the BULLET CLUB, claiming he “did not consider himself a gaijin” since his home promotion had been in Japan for the past six years. That would soon be revealed as a swerve, as a month later Karl Anderson announced the introduction of “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega into the BULLET CLUB. This new nickname was later clarified by Omega himself to mean he only cared about money and titles, and now with a new, darker look, a more serious Omega will challenge Taguchi for his Junior Heavyweight Title.
Prediction: Omega has only been around on a very part-time basis until now, and is thus far fresher than Taguchi (who’s been in New Japan since his debut all the way back in 2002). He should go over here, and I have a strong feeling he probably will. It’s possible Taguchi gets the big win at the Tokyo Dome only for Omega to win the title a month or so later in a rematch, but I think Omega gets the belt at the Dome.
7. IWGP Tag Team Titles- BULLET CLUB (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) © vs. Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata: Katsuyori Shibata was originally one of the “New 3 Musketeers” with Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi towards the early-to-mid 2000s, playing off the original “3 Musketeers” of Masahiro Chono (the “black ace” or top heel wrestler), Shinya Hashimoto (the more traditional ace with the martial arts background), and Keiji Mutoh (the charismatic, high-flying enigma/wild card). Originally it was clearly set up with Tanahashi as the Mutoh, Nakamura as the Hashimoto, and Shibata as the Chono, but Shibata clearly did not enjoy doing any of the more “entertainment” aspects of wrestling and basically rejected his role. In 2005 Shibata left with Inoki loyalist and former matchmaker Fumihiko Uwai, becoming the ace of the short-lived Big Mouth LOUD promotion (which has to be in the running for stupidest promotion name of all-time). However, Shibata would depart just eight months later, and the promotion entirely went under not long after that.
Shibata went freelance from then on, until taking a hiatus from pro wrestling to embark on a mixed martial arts career in early 2007. But he was unsuccessful as a shootfighter, finishing his career in August of 2011 with just a 4-11-1 record. Shibata would thus finally return to New Japan in early 2012 in a bit of an awkward situation. He returned alongside Sakuraba as, basically, part-time invaders, but there was legitimate heat on Shibata for how he abandoned the promotion during their darkest time, so he was never quite pushed to the same level of his overness. Tanahashi in particular was extremely outspoken on Shibata’s hard-hitting wrestling style (he’s one of the most brutal strikers in Japan, so that should tell you something!) and how he left the promotion basically high-and-dry. Over the last few months, the two appear to have buried the hatchet, embracing following their match in September 2014 that Tanahashi won (Shibata had beaten him during the G1 tournament a few months earlier). Shibata then finally began working a full New Japan schedule again for the first time since he departed the promotion, and has begun to tone down his style. He still remains massively popular.
It can be argued, with the benefit of hindsight, that his departure was almost the best thing for New Japan and the “New 3 Musketeers”. Shibata, with his incredibly strong strikes and preference to focus on in-ring competition (since his return, he’s been billed simply as “The Wrestler”, wearing just plain short black trunks and basically being a straight-forward competitor), is a much better fit to be the Hashimoto of the trio than the Chono. Meanwhile, after his initial run as the young ace “supernova” basically flopped, Nakamura ended up as Chono’s protégé, first joining his BLACK unit in late 2006, remaking it in his own image as RISE in 2007, and then basically abandoning RISE to take over the true heel unit of New Japan, GBH, in 2009. GBH thus morphed into CHAOS, the unit that continues to this day, and Nakamura discovered a previously hidden reservoir of charisma, in essence truly becoming the Chono of the trio as a massively popular but ostensibly heel wrestler. Tanahashi, meanwhile, was basically cast well as the Mutoh but obviously became the true “ace” (or top star) of the promotion along the way.
Shibata engaged in an epic rivalry with Hirooki Goto throughout most of 2013. Goto & Shibata had actually known each other in high school, where they competed alongside each other in the high school wrestling club, and entered the brutal New Japan Dojo together. The feud centered around Goto’s anger at Shibata for leaving (though in this case it was probably completely worked) and also a desire to rise above each other. The feud blew off at last year’s Tokyo Dome event with a victory for Goto. They embraced afterwards in a truly touching moment, finally reuniting their childhood friendship, and formed a tag team soon after. In December, they defeated Anderson & Gallows in the finals of New Japan’s annual World Tag League, and thus became the #1 Contenders for the IWGP Tag Team Titles.
Anderson & Gallows, meanwhile, have reigned as champions since beating Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. at last year’s Tokyo Dome show. Anderson is of course no stranger to a long reign as IWGP Tag Team Champions, previously holding the IWGP belts with his Bad Intentions partner Giant Bernard for nearly two years. However, this championship team has never really come close to touching Bad Intentions, and for the most part they’ve been a bit of an afterthought throughout the past year. It would be nice to finally move on from them.
Prediction: This is one I could honestly see going either way, since Anderson & Gallows are still the top tag team and key members of the BULLET CLUB and it seems sort of weird to have them lose two matches in under a month to the same team. I could easily see them winning this one and losing the belts not long after in a “rubber match”. But Shibata & Goto are both top stars, and in the end I think they’ll take the belts here on the Dome stage.
8. AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito: Naito has been groomed as a future top star and successor to Tanahashi as the babyface New Japan sekigun (“normal roster”, or the wrestlers not in any unit) ace for years now. It began following the split of his Team No Limit duo with Yuiro Takahashi in 2011, and Naito almost immediately went all the way to the finals of the G1 Climax that year, losing to Shinsuke Nakamura. In 2012 Naito got a showcase match against legend Keiji Mutoh at the 1/4 Dome show, though he would lose the bout. His push was stalled by a major knee injury that required surgery, but he did beat Okada during the 2012 G1 Climax before having to bow away for eight months. He returned in May of 2013, almost immediately beating Masato Tanaka to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion. He then entered the 2013 G1 Climax and this time won it, beating none other than Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals.
That victory earned him an IWGP Heavyweight Title shot at the 1/4/14 Tokyo Dome show, but for whatever reason, things never clicked for him as a top challenger. New Japan fans honestly seemed to resent him a bit for his strong push, and some lackluster promos during the buildup (which would be criticized by Tanahashi himself months later) didn’t help his cause. Okada defeated him to retain his title, and Naito’s push was scaled back quite a bit for the rest of 2014. He lost the NEVER title to Ishii on February 11th and failed to win it back in a rematch a couple months later. He did get a few big wins in the 2014 G1, including over Okada and his opponent at WK9, AJ Styles, but ultimately failed to repeat as champion.
Meanwhile, AJ Styles had an amazing 2014, debuting in New Japan with a bang by attacking Okada on April 6th at the Invasion Attack event, essentially taking over for the departing Devitt as the new top star of the BULLET CLUB (the group insists that they have no “leader”). Styles then won the IWGP Heavyweight Title from Okada in his very first match in New Japan less than a month later, after Yujiro turned on Okada and left CHAOS for the BULLET CLUB (becoming the first, and to this day only, native Japanese member). Styles’ reign as IWGP Champion included defending his title successfully against Okada in their rematch (Okada eventually did get a win back over him, but it was in a non-title G1 bout) and a victory in a 3-way dance over Okada & ROH star Michael Elgin on the ROH/NJPW co-promoted show in New York City. Styles also had a good showing in the G1, finishing 2nd in his block. However, on October 31st he was defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP title.
This match thus functions as a battle between two wrestlers who had very different 2014s- Styles made an amazing splash, while Naito’s push stalled. Styles started his run in New Japan without much fan support (they were essentially silent when he first won the belt from Okada, and the match didn’t draw particularly well), but eventually won them over with an almost amazing string of matches. You could feel the crowd really start to come around on him during his fantastic G1, and today he’s one of the most over wrestlers in the company. Naito on the other hand has recovered some of his popularity since his push was scaled back, but it remains to be seen how well the fans will take to him should he ever reach the very top of the cards again. The placement here third from the top clearly shows New Japan still has a lot of hope for him in the future. As for the match itself, their G1 match was quite great so expect this to be a strong bout as well.
Prediction: Either guy could go over here and it would make sense, since both are protected top stars who have rarely done jobs since the G1. I think Styles wins it though, setting him up to challenge either Tanahashi or Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Title next month (he never got a rematch following his title loss to Tanahashi).
9. IWGP Intercontiental Title- Shinsuke Nakamura © vs. Kota Ibushi: Nakamura has owned the Intercontiental Title since first winning it from Hirooki Goto on July 22nd, 2012. He has held the belt on four separate occasions, and counting all four reigns from then until present, he has only gone about eight months total in the past two-and-a-half years without the title. His presence as Intercontiental Champion or frequent challenger has helped elevate the belt to the point where New Japan has headlined major shows with the IC Title quite a few times in the past year or so; when Nakamura announced he wanted “his” belt back from Bad Luck Fale a few months ago, he memorably did so by yelling out (in English, mind you) “NO BELT, NO LIFE!”. It would not be much of a stretch to say Nakamura’s Intercontiental Title likely means more to New Japan fans now than the WWE World Heavyweight Title does to WWE fans these days.
Ibushi, meanwhile, is stepping up into the main events after a long run of impressive matches in the junior heavyweight division. He had a mini-breakout of sorts during the 2013 G1 Climax, including an amazing match with Nakamura that won the Tokyo Sports Match of the Year award (Nakamura won the bout, by the way). He was back in the junior division afterwards, winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title from Prince Devitt at the 1/4/14 Tokyo Dome show, before losing the belt to KUSHIDA in July of 2014. It was expected that he was going to graduate full-time into a heavyweight wrestler afterwards, starting with the 2014 G1, but unfortunately a concussion suffered in his junior title loss sidelined him and forced him to miss the tournament. He returned in November and quickly made an impact, delivering a German suplex to Nakamura from behind while he was doing a promo in the ring essentially wondering who his Tokyo Dome challenger would be. Nakamura-Ibushi thus was signed for the Dome.
There’s not much else to say about this one. Judging by their original match, this should be a phenomenal bout that has an outside shot at stealing the show entirely.
Prediction: Personally I would give the win to Ibushi here, but it would be very un-Japanese booking to have a wrestler who only recently graduated to heavyweight from junior win the big title match against the longitime heavyweight star. Thus I believe Nakamura winning is far more likely.
10. IWGP Heavyweight Title- Hiroshi Tanahashi © vs. Kazuchika Okada: I covered a lot of the history of Tanahashi-Okada back in part 1, so definitely check that out if you haven’t already. These two are epic rivals who put on not one, not two, but THREE amazing matches in 2013, for this very title (plus a 30-minute draw during the 2013 G1 that was also very good, if not quite on that level). They haven’t met in a singles match since the October 2013 bout, won by Okada. In fact, Tanahashi hasn’t beaten Okada since the main event of the 1/4/13 Dome show.
So thus New Japan has created a very unique dynamic here, where the champion Tanahashi is almost the underdog. Their last three bouts have seen two Okada victories and one draw, so it’s been a while since Tanahashi has been victorious over him. Okada won the 2014 G1 to earn this shot, beating Nakamura in the finals, while Tanahashi won the IWGP Heavyweight Title from AJ Styles in October 2014. Finally, after nearly 14 months of waiting, we’ll get another chapter in the Tanahashi-Okada saga. Needless to say, expectations are high, and Okada literally promising to have “the first-ever six star match” didn’t do anything to lower them!
Prediction: Tanahashi retains. This is another one that could honestly go either way: both are hugely popular stars who the crowd loves, and neither one winning would be rejected here. Okada is also promising some sort of “new move” to beat Tanahashi with (which is actually kinda funny since, to date, no one, including Tanahashi, has ever kicked out of Okada’s Rainmaker move), and Japanese wrestlers usually tend to deliver on those sorts of promises. But Tanahashi ending the dome show celebrating by playing air guitar to his theme song has sort of become the yearly expected tradition, and since beating Okada here isn’t going to hurt him one bit, I don’t think they’ll deviate from that. Again, though, New Japan really can’t go wrong with this one, and it wouldn’t shock me one bit to see Okada win again.
How you can watch
We’ll finally wrap up our preview with details on how you can watch Wrestle Kingdom 9. Basically you have three options: traditional PPV in North America, if it’s available to you, internet PPV through the Flipps TV app, and internet PPV directly from the New Japan World service that I went over at the end of part 1. The NJPW World option is by far your cheapest at around $8-9 dollars a month for a streaming service that includes a ton of New Japan archive footage and other shows that can be watched either live or on demand, but you won’t get the English commentary with Jim Ross & Matt Striker. The GFW-produced show is airing in most places in North America on traditional PPV, but the actual time it’s being shown at there is a little unpredictable (some carriers are offering it live, some aren’t; the big showing was supposed to be a 7 pm replay on Sunday night, and some carriers like DirecTV aren’t offering that one, instead showing replays on their own weird schedule). It will also set you back more, either $35 or $45 depending on your carrier (supposedly Jarrett requested the $35 price, but some providers set it at $45 anyway). The Flipps TV internet PPV is available worldwide and is the GFW show with JR/Striker, but will cost about the same as the traditional PPV.
No matter how you ultimately decide to watch the show, it will be live very late Saturday night, 2 am eastern/11 pm pacific time. If you’re going to give one non-WWE PPV show a chance this year, this is honestly the one to watch. You will get a ton of outstanding matches, simple storylines that make sense, and an impressive amount of pageantry and production values. In fact, I would argue that New Japan, in some ways, does a better job with this show than WWE does in producing a “big event” feel. You’ll see what I mean if you choose to order the show, but trust me, there will be plenty of enormous screens and pyrotechnics if you have to have them in your professional wrestling!
I hope you enjoyed this thorough preview! See you next week for a full wrap-up of Wrestle Kingdom 9!
Photo via Knockout Nation
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