When was Wrestle Kingdom 9?
Wrestle Kingdom 12
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.
WrestleMania IX
One of the feuds heading into the event was between Tatanka and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. Tatanka was in the midst of an undefeated streak and had wrestled Michaels twice in the months leading up to WrestleMania IX. Tatanka pinned Michaels in a singles match on the February 13, 1993, episode of "WWF Superstars of Wrestling" and later teamed with The Nasty Boys in a six-man match against Michaels and the Beverly Brothers; Tatanka pinned Michaels to win this match as well. Michaels was also feuding with Sensational Sherri, who stood in Tatanka's corner during the match. Sherri had been Michaels' valet. When Marty Jannetty tried to hit Michaels with a mirror, however, Michaels pulled Sherri in front of him to protect himself. Sherri's anger at getting hit over the head with a mirror caused her to turn on him at Royal Rumble 1993.
The match between The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) and The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu) had little background, although Afa, who managed The Headshrinkers, claimed that his team would "tear [the Steiners'] heads off". Doink the Clown and Crush had been feuding since the January 2, 1993, episode of "WWF Superstars of Wrestling". After Crush's match on that show, he confronted Doink, who had thrown a ball at a child in the audience. Crush grabbed Doink by the arm and warned him not to play any more pranks on children. Doink, wearing a cast on the arm that Crush had supposedly injured by grabbing, came to ringside during Crush's match on the January 18 episode of "WWF Monday Night Raw". He apologized to Crush and gave him a flower; when Crush walked away, Doink removed a prosthetic arm from his cast and attacked Crush, who was later taken away in an ambulance due to kayfabe (storyline) injuries. For storyline purposes, Crush was said to be too injured to compete in the 1993 Royal Rumble match. Doink continued his pranks by squirting Crush with a water pistol and recording video messages to Crush, which showed two Doinks on the screen.
Royal Rumble (2010)
Royal Rumble (2010) was the twenty-third annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on January 31, 2010, at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia and featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a match at that year's WrestleMania, (in this instance: WrestleMania XXVI) for his choice at either the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship, or the ECW Championship.
King of Pro-Wrestling (2016)
King of Pro-Wrestling (2016) was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), which took place on October 10, 2016, in Tokyo at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. It was NJPW's biggest show between August's G1 Climax and January's Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome and featured nine matches with four of them contested for championships, main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Pro Wrestling Noah representative Naomichi Marufuji. This was the fifth event under the King of Pro-Wrestling name.
TNA Global Impact!
Global Impact 3 debuted on pay-per-view on February 24, 2011, and featured matches involving TNA wrestlers from the January 4, 2011, New Japan Pro Wrestling show Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome. The matches included saw Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode) unsuccessfully challenging Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) for the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a three–way tag team match, which also included Muscle Orchestra (Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man), Rob Van Dam defeating Toru Yano in a hardcore match and Jeff Hardy successfully defending the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito.
Wrestle Kingdom I
Wrestle Kingdom featured 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 9
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.
Wrestle Kingdom II
On February 17, 2008, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kurt Angle to unify the two versions of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Afterwards, both the second and third generation title belts were retired with Nakamura being awarded a brand new belt to represent the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The fourth generation belt was created to symbolically end the issues surrounding the championship and start anew.
Wrestle Kingdom 8
The event featured ten matches, six of which were contested for championships. For the first time in twenty years, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Championship was defended during the event with NWA representative Rob Conway defending against Satoshi Kojima. The event was headlined by a double main event; Shinsuke Nakamura defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the 2013 G1 Climax, Tetsuya Naito. A fan vote decided the order in which the two matches took place during the event; the Heavyweight Championship match went first and the Intercontinental Championship match was the final match of the event. The event also featured outside participation from Wrestle-1 representative Keiji Mutoh, who worked under his Great Muta character. The event also featured appearances by Harley Race, Marty Friedman and Stan Hansen.
King of the Ring
1. Bill Wood substituted for Barry Windham.King of the Ring (1991) was the sixth King of the Ring professional wrestling tournament produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The tournament was held on September 7, 1991 at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
WrestleMania VI
As new WWF World Heavyweight Champion, The Ultimate Warrior would initially be a successful main event draw, with his main rival being "Ravishing" Rick Rude – a wrestler he had fought during much of 1989 over the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship – during the spring and summer of 1990. Meanwhile, Hogan wrestled several matches in Japan shortly after WrestleMania VI but soon began feuding with the 470-pound Earthquake, with that feud heating up when Earthquake sneak-attacked Hogan on "The Brother Love Show" in May. Announcers explained that Hogan's injuries from the attack and the loss to Warrior both took such a huge toll on his fighting spirit that he wanted to retire, and viewers were persuaded to write Hogan to encourage him to return. Hogan would return by SummerSlam in August 1990 and got revenge on Earthquake, dominating him in matches that continued into early 1991.
Wrestle Kingdom II
Wrestle Kingdom II 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.
Starrcade (1989)
Starrcade (1989) was the seventh annual Starrcade professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner. It was the second Starrcade event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and it took place on December 13, 1989 at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
WrestleMania
In 1988, in association with The Trump Organization, WWF prepared a small festival to celebrate WrestleMania IV, which included autograph signings, a brunch, and a 5K run; the event was held again in 1989 for WrestleMania V. In 1992, a festival was held the day of WrestleMania VIII which included a WWF superstar look-alike contest and a tournament for the "WWF WrestleFest" arcade game. In 1993, the WWF held a "WrestleMania Brunch" the day of WrestleMania IX at Caesars Palace, during the course of which Lex Luger attacked Bret Hart. In 1994, WWF offered "Fan Fest" for the weekend of WrestleMania X, which allowed fans to step inside a WWF ring, participate in games, meet superstars, and purchase merchandise; the event was followed up in 1995 with another "Fan Fest" for WrestleMania XI. In 1999, WWF held its first Saturday pre-WrestleMania event taking place on March 27, 1999. "WrestleMania Rage Party" as it was known was televised live on the USA Network from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (EST). The event was to be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The idea of the event was "...to celebrate the final WrestleMania of the millennium..."
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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 11
Wrestle Kingdom 11 featured eleven 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 11 was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega. Okada won the title on June 19, 2016, by defeating Tetsuya Naito at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall. Meanwhile, Omega became the number one contender at the Tokyo Dome by winning the 2016 G1 Climax the following August, defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals to become the first foreign winner of NJPW's premier tournament. Afterwards, Okada reatined the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Pro Wrestling Noah representative Naomichi Marufuji, avenging a loss suffered during the 2016 G1 Climax, while Omega defended his status as the number one contender against Yoshi-Hashi and Hirooki Goto, leading to the match between Okada and Omega being made official for the Tokyo Dome in a press conference on October 11. Omega stated that his goal as champion was to take the IWGP Heavyweight Championship abroad and defend it in countries like the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand in direct opposition to WWE and their global strategy. Okada and Omega were the heads of the Chaos and Bullet Club stables, respectively, and the match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 marked the first singles match between the two. The match also marked Omega's first ever shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Lenne Hardt
Hardt entered into a career as an English language announcer for mixed martial arts events in 2000 at PRIDE's first Grand Prix. PRIDE officials needed an announcer fluent in English and Japanese. Although she had no experience with the sport, her agent contacted her about the job and she took it simply because it fit into her schedule. Hardt became a self-described fan of the sport and continued as the English announcer for PRIDE until its final event. When the former staff of PRIDE created DREAM, Hardt was carried over as well. Hardt has also worked with Japanese pro wrestling organization New Japan Pro Wrestling as a special guest English language ring announcer for their January 4 Tokyo Dome shows, announcing both Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 2014 and Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
King of the Ring
King of the Ring (1987) was the third annual King of the Ring professional wrestling tournament produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The tournament was held on September 4, 1987 at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
In the opening match of Wrestle Kingdom 10, The Young Bucks defeated defending champions reDRagon, Roppongi Vice and the team of Matt Sydal and Ricochet in a four-way match to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the fourth time. In the second match, Toru Yano and the debuting Jay and Mark Briscoe became the inaugural NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions with a win over Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi. In the third match of the event, Jay Lethal retained the ROH World Championship, pinning Michael Elgin after hitting him with his manager Truth Martini's book.
WrestleMania IX
The Undertaker continued to feud with Harvey Wippleman. On the June 12, 1993, episode of "WWF Superstars of Wrestling", Wippleman, Giant Gonzalez, and Mr. Hughes attacked The Undertaker, and his manager Paul Bearer, and stole the urn that was said to be the source of his power. The Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez faced each other one final time at SummerSlam 1993 in a Rest in Peace match, in which neither wrestler could be disqualified. The Undertaker won the match to end the feud. After the match, a frustrated Gonzalez chokeslammed Wippleman to the delight of the fans and turned face in the process.
Wrestle Kingdom 13
Wrestle Kingdom 13 was officially announced during the finals of the annual G1 Climax on August 12, 2018.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
Wrestle Kingdom 8
Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" wrote that "by most normal standards, the show was very good", but felt that it did not match the previous year's show, which he called "among the greatest wrestling events of all-time". He praised the final four matches, giving both of the main events four and a quarter stars out of five, while calling the first half "not good" and the tag team match involving the Gracies "kind of an atrocity". In his review of the show, James Caldwell of "Pro Wrestling Torch" wrote that "[t]he big matches delivered, the undercard was hit-or-miss, and the event production was top-notch".
Wrestle Kingdom 8
Wrestle Kingdom 8 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, 2014. It was the 23rd January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the eighth held under the "Wrestle Kingdom" name. Like the previous year, the event aired worldwide on internet pay-per-view (iPPV). Wrestle Kingdom is traditionally NJPW's biggest event of the year and has been described as their equivalent to WWE's WrestleMania.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
SummerSlam (2009)
SummerSlam (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on August 23, 2009, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and was the first of six consecutive annual SummerSlam events to take place at the arena. It was presented by 7-Eleven. It was the twenty-second annual SummerSlam event and featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. Eight matches were contested on the event's card.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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".
WrestleMania VII
WrestleMania VII was the seventh annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on March 24, 1991, at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. The main event saw Hulk Hogan defeat Sgt. Slaughter for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship as part of a controversial storyline in which Sgt. Slaughter portrayed an Iraqi sympathizer during the United States' involvement in the Gulf War. Significant events on the undercard included The Undertaker's WrestleMania debut and the beginning of his renowned winning streak, a retirement match between Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior leading to the former's reuniting with estranged love Miss Elizabeth, as well as the final televised match of the original Hart Foundation, after which Bret Hart became primarily a singles wrestler.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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."
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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 13
On October 14, 2018 at Global Wars UK, Tomohiro Ishii defeated Minoru Suzuki to win the British Heavyweight Championship. At Power Struggle, Ishii defeated Suzuki to retain the title. On November 9 at Revolution Pro Wrestling's Uprising event, Tomohiro Ishii successfully defended the championship against David Starr. Following the match, Ishii was attacked by Zack Sabre Jr. and Suzuki-gun, with Sabre challenging Ishii for a championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 13.
Royal Rumble (2009)
The prime match at Royal Rumble 2009, was the annual Royal Rumble match, as featured at every Royal Rumble event since its inception. The match featured 30 male wrestlers from WWE's three brands; WWE officially announced 23 participants. The match ends when one wrestler remains in the ring after the elimination of all the 29 other wrestlers. (Participants eliminate opponents by tossing them over the top ring-rope and making both their feet touch the floor.) The winner earned an opportunity to challenge for the WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship at WWE's April WrestleMania XXV pay-per-view.
Royal Rumble featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines played out on "Raw", "SmackDown", and "ECW on Sci Fi" – World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) primary television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension and which culminated in a wrestling match or in a series of matches. The event featured wrestlers from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE employees were assigned to a television program of the same name.
Extreme Rules (2009)
Extreme Rules (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on June 7, 2009, at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was presented by AT&T. It was the first event promoted under the Extreme Rules name, and initially noted by WWE to be a direct continuation of the One Night Stand chronology. It featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. There were eight matches scheduled on the event's card, though nine actually took place.
Wrestle Kingdom II
In the main event of the show, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time in four years. In the semi-main event, TNA representative Kurt Angle successfully defended the "IWGP 3rd Belt Championship" against Yuji Nagata. Following the main event, Angle confronted Nakamura, setting up a championship unification match between the two.
SummerSlam (1990)
The Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude had been feuding since the 1989 Royal Rumble. The competed against each other in a "posedown" to show off their muscles, after which Rude attacked the Warrior. They faced each other at WrestleMania V in a match for the Warrior's Intercontinental Championship. Rude won the title, but the Warrior regained the title belt at SummerSlam 1989. The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VI; he was forced to give up the Intercontinental Championship, and Rick Rude was named the top challenger for SummerSlam. The match was later scheduled as a steel cage match.
Matt Striker
Striker and Jim Ross served as the English language commentators for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)'s Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome pay-per-view on January 4, 2015. On October 12, Striker returned to NJPW to provide English commentary on King of Pro-Wrestling, this time working alongside long-time Ring of Honor commentator Kevin Kelly. The following year, Striker returned to NJPW English commentary at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2016, again working alongside Kelly, as well as NJPW wrestler Yoshitatsu.
Royal Rumble (1999)
Royal Rumble (1999) was the twelfth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on January 24, 1999, at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim in Anaheim, California. The tagline and subtitle of the event was taken from a promise by Mr. McMahon that the first entrant in the Royal Rumble, Stone Cold Steve Austin, had "no chance in hell" of winning the match. The theme song for the event, based on the phrase, would go on to become the entrance music for McMahon's stable The Corporation and later, just McMahon himself, which he uses to this day.
King of the Ring (1999)
The 1999 event was the thirteenth time the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) held a King of the Ring tournament and the seventh time they held the tournament on a PPV. Triple H was originally supposed to compete in the King of the Ring tournament, but he wanted to compete for the WWF title instead, so he gave his spot to Chyna.
The event featured a total of 15 professional wrestling matches, one untelevised match, four shown during Sunday Night Heat and the remaining 10 matches broadcast live on Pay-Per-View (PPV). Some of the matches featured wrestlers who were involved in pre-existing scripted feuds or storylines and others are teamed up with no backstory. Wrestlers themselves portrayed either heels (wrestling term for those who portray the "bad guys") or faces (those who portray the "good guys") as they competed in matches with pre-determined outcomes.
Victory Road (2009)
Victory Road (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which took place on July 19, 2009 at the TNA Impact! Zone in Orlando, Florida. It was the fifth event under the Victory Road chronology and was voted the worst major wrestling show of the year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Royal Rumble (1989)
Royal Rumble (1989) was the second annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and the first to be held on pay-per-view (PPV). It took place on January 15, 1989, at The Summit in Houston, Texas.
Jim Ross
On January 4, 2015, Ross and Matt Striker served as the English language commentators for Global Force Wrestling's presentation of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome pay-per-view.
Wrestle Kingdom VI
Wrestle Kingdom VI featured the NJPW return of Kazuchika Okada. Okada was a rookie in 2010, when NJPW, through their international connections, sent him to the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion to gain experience and grow as a wrestler. During his one and a half years in TNA, Okada did little of note; he was dressed up like Kato from "The Green Hornet", dubbed "Okato" and made Samoa Joe's sidekick in an angle with D'Angelo Dinero, wrestling only a handful of actual matches. TNA's poor handling of Okada was one of the key factors in NJPW ceasing their relationship with the American promotion, which made Wrestle Kingdom VI the first Tokyo Dome show in five years to not feature any wrestlers from the company. On December 9, 2011, NJPW announced that Okada would return to the promotion at Wrestle Kingdom VI, facing Yoshi-Hashi, who was making his own return from the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, with whom NJPW also had a working relationship, where, unlike Okada, he had been wrestling a full schedule and improving. Upon his return to NJPW, Okada created himself a new villainous persona named "Rainmaker".
Wrestle Kingdom 11
Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4, 2017, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 26th 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".
Tokyo Dome
In professional wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has run the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, currently promoted as "Wrestle Kingdom", every year since 1992. The event is the biggest in "puroresu", and roughly analogous to WrestleMania in the United States.
Glory By Honor VIII: The Final Countdown
Glory by Honor VIII: The Final Countdown was the 8th Glory By Honor professional wrestling event promoted by Ring of Honor. It took place on September 26, 2009, at the Manhattan Center in New York, New York. The show was headlined by Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness, who were both making their last appearances for ROH before leaving for World Wrestling Entertainment. Danielson would go on to find success in the WWE, however McGuinness' contract had fallen through and he signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Danielson, who was the first to announce he was signing with WWE, was originally scheduled to face Austin Aries for the ROH World Championship, but the match was later changed when McGuinness also announced he was signing.
Wrestle Kingdom III
For the second year in a row, the show featured wrestlers from the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and again their matches aired in the United States as part of the "Global Impact!" broadcast. In addition, the show also featured wrestlers from the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) as part of a new relationship between NJPW and CMLL. Wrestlers from other Japanese promotions also took part in the show, including All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero1, whose top title, the World Heavyweight Championship, was defended during the show.
Royal Rumble (1993)
At WrestleMania IX, Yokozuna defeated Bret Hart to win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. His title reign only lasted several minutes, however, as he dropped the belt to Hulk Hogan in an impromptu match. Yokozuna regained the title but dropped it to Hart the following year.
Shawn Michaels continued his feud with Sensational Sherri at WrestleMania IX. Sherri accompanied Tatanka, and Michaels countered this by introducing Luna Vachon, his new valet. After the match, Vachon attacked Sherri. The feud also continued between Michaels and Jannetty, as Jannetty defeated Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship on May 17, 1993. Michaels regained the belt in a rematch the following month to end the feud.
Wrestle Kingdom V
The show included wrestlers from the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotions for the fourth and third year in a row, respectively. During the show, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was defended for the first time in Japan. The three matches involving TNA wrestlers were aired by the American company as part of "Global Impact 3". Wrestlers from DDT Pro-Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero1 also took part in the show.
Wrestle Kingdom II
As part of a new working relationship, the show featured wrestlers from the Orlando, Florida-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion. The matches involving TNA wrestlers were shown as a special "Global Impact!" broadcast in the United States. TNA wrestlers were involved in six of the ten matches, which included Kurt Angle making a successful defense of the Inoki Genome Federation's version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (known as the IWGP 3rd Belt Championship in NJPW) against Yuji Nagata. The show also featured wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Dradition and Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max.
Survivor Series (2009)
Survivor Series (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on November 22, 2009, at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.. It was the 23rd annual Survivor Series event and starred wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.
WrestleMania IX
WrestleMania IX was released on VHS by Coliseum Video. It was then released as part of the WWF's WrestleMania: The Collection (1985–1997) box set in 1997. The video was re-released six years later in March 1999. That month, it was also released as part of the WWF's WrestleMania: The Legacy box set. It was also released on DVD for WWE's History of WrestleMania I-IX box set on September 14, 2004.
WrestleMania V
WrestleMania V was the fifth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and closed-circuit TV event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on April 2, 1989, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
King of the Ring (1993)
King of the Ring (1993) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). This was the first of ten King of the Ring events that was produced as a pay-per-view. The event resulted from the WWF's decision to make its annual King of the Ring tournament into a televised event. It took place on June 13, 1993, at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio. The card featured ten matches, which resulted from scripted storylines and had results predetermined by the WWF.
WWE Hall of Fame (2009)
WWE Hall of Fame (2009) was the event which featured the introduction of the 10th class to the WWE Hall of Fame. The event was produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on April 4, 2009 from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The event took place the same weekend as WrestleMania XXV. The event was hosted by Jerry Lawler and Todd Grisham. The ceremony aired later that evening on the USA Network. In March 2015 the ceremony was added to the WWE Network.
Wrestle Kingdom 7
Wrestle Kingdom 7 featured eleven 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.
On August 12, 2012, Kazuchika Okada defeated Karl Anderson in the finals to win the 2012 G1 Climax, winning the tournament in his first attempt, while also breaking the record for the tournament's youngest winner. Okada immediately announced his intention of regaining the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 7. Okada then signed a contract for the title match, which was then sealed in a briefcase, which he would be forced to defend until January 4. After successfully defending the contract against Karl Anderson and Hirooki Goto, the Wrestle Kingdom 7 main event was officially set between Okada and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi.
King of Pro-Wrestling (2014)
In the semi-main event, Kazuchika Okada was booked to defend his certificate for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, which he had obtained by winning the 2014 G1 Climax, against Tetsuya Naito. During G1 Climax, Okada had been defeated by Naito, which resulted in him nominating Naito as his next challenger for the certificate. In the main event, Bullet Club's A.J. Styles would make his third defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. After failing to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Okada at the 2013 King of Pro-Wrestling, Tanahashi announced that he was leaving the title picture. However, after defeating Katsuyori Shibata at Destruction in Kobe, Tanahashi announced he was back and looking for a shot at A.J. Styles. Tanahashi and Styles previously faced off in Ryōgoku Kokugikan on February 17, 2008, and more recently met in a special non-tournament singles match during the final day of the 2014 G1 Climax. Tanahashi won the match, but was afterwards attacked by Bullet Club's newest member, Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett did not make another appearance for NJPW for two months, but was working behind the scenes on getting Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome broadcast on the American PPV market. On September 29, Jarrett announced he was returning to NJPW at King of Pro-Wrestling.
King of the Ring (1994)
King of the Ring (1994) was the second annual King of the Ring professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on June 19, 1994, at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. "King of the Ring" is also the name of the tournament that was the focus of this pay-per-view event. The tournament to determine which wrestler would be crowned King of the Ring actually began the month before the pay-per-view, as the wrestlers gained entry in the tournament by participating in qualifying matches. These matches were held throughout May 1994 on WWF television programs, although the WWF did not explain how wrestlers were selected to compete in the qualifying matches. The second, third and fourth rounds of the tournament were televised on the pay-per-view broadcast on June 19.
Power Struggle (2014)
The day after Power Struggle, Ring of Honor announced that reDRagon and Time Splitters would face each other in a rematch on December 7 at Final Battle 2014, this time contested for the former's ROH World Tag Team Championship. reDRagon went on to win that match as well. On November 10, NJPW announced five more matches for Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, stemming from Power Struggle. These were Shinsuke Nakamura defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi, Ryusuke Taguchi defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega, Tomohiro Ishii defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Togi Makabe, reDRagon defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a four-way match against Forever Hooligans, Time Splitters and The Young Bucks and Minoru Suzuki and Kazushi Sakuraba facing off in a match, which could only end by knockout, submission or referee stoppage. Following the events of King of Pro-Wrestling and Power Struggle, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu announced they were forming a new tag team named "The World".
Wrestle Kingdom 10
Hours after the event had concluded, it was reported by multiple sources that A.J. Styles, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Shinsuke Nakamura had all given their notice to NJPW on the morning of January 4, announcing that they were leaving the promotion and joining WWE. The notices reportedly led to no finishes of matches being changed by booker Gedo. The following day, the rest of Bullet Club turned on Styles, kicking him out of the stable with Kenny Omega assuming leadership of the stable. Omega was also set up as the next challenger for Shinsuke Nakamura's IWGP Intercontinental Championship. This marked Styles' final appearance for NJPW. Meanwhile, the other three were involved in angles setting up future title matches. Anderson and Nakamura remained under NJPW contracts and were expected to finish off their contracted dates with the promotion before leaving. On January 5, WWE released an article on its official website, discussing the rumors of Styles, Nakamura, Anderson and Gallows joining the promotion. The following day, Nakamura confirmed in an interview with "Tokyo Sports" that he would be leaving NJPW at the end of the month and signing with WWE. Styles officially made his WWE debut on January 24, 2016, at the Royal Rumble. Nakamura wrestled his final NJPW match on January 30, making his NXT debut two months later on April 1. The departures led to NJPW scrapping its one-year contract system and starting to offer their wrestlers multi-year contracts. In 2018, at WWE's Royal Rumble, Nakamura won the 2018 Men's Royal Rumble match to earn a World title match at WrestleMania, he chose a WWE Championship match against the champion at that time, AJ Styles (who had retained the title againest Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn earlier in the night). At WrestleMania, Styles defeated Nakamura to retain the championship. After the match, Nakamura turned heel and attacked Styles. After WrestleMania, the two continued to feud through Greatest Royal Rumble and Backlash with their matches ending in draws. At Money in the Bank, Styles retained the WWE Championship by defeating Nakamura in a Last Man Standing match, ending their feud.
WrestleMania IX
WWE places two events from WrestleMania IX in its top 50 WrestleMania moments: Bobby Heenan's entrance on the camel, which the company calls "one of the most hilarious moments in WWE history", and Hulk Hogan's title victory. Matt Anoa'i, who wrestled for WWE as Rosey, and was the cousin of Yokozuna, Samu and Fatu, has identified The Headshrinkers performing a double splash on Scott Steiner at this event as his favorite moment at WrestleMania.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
Both of NJPW's junior heavyweight titles were also be defended at Wrestle Kingdom 10. In the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match, Kenny Omega was set to defend against Kushida in the third title match between the two. The first took place on July 5, 2015, at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, where Kushida, the winner of the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, defeated Omega to win the title. A rematch took place on September 23 at Destruction in Okayama, where Omega regained the title with help from his Bullet Club stablemates. On November 1, Kushida challenged Omega to a "one more match", which was made official for Wrestle Kingdom 10 on November 9. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship would be defended in a four-way match, where the reigning champions reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) were set to take on Matt Sydal and Ricochet, Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Rocky Romero) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). Sydal and Ricochet earned their title shot on November 7 by defeating Roppongi Vice to win the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. However, after the match both Roppongi Vice and The Young Bucks also laid their own claims on a title match with reDRagon. Roppongi Vice had eliminated the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions from the tournament, while The Young Bucks felt they deserved a rematch with reDRagon, having lost the title to them on August 16. This led to NJPW announcing a title match with all four teams on November 9.
Wrestle Kingdom 10 also featured a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson defending against G.B.H. (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma). Makabe and Honma earned their title shot on December 9 by defeating "Los Ingobernables de Japon" (Evil and Tetsuya Naito) to win the 2015 World Tag League. That same day ROH World Champion Jay Lethal appeared in a video, requesting a challenger for a title match at Wrestle Kingdom 10. The challenge was accepted that same night by Michael Elgin, an ROH wrestler who had taken part in the World Tag League. Elgin had made his NJPW debut during the previous summer's 2015 G1 Climax, quickly becoming a fan favorite. The following day, NJPW backtracked on the title match announcement, instead announcing a "special singles match" between the two with the possibility of it being turned into a title match, provided that Lethal was still the champion on January 4. ROH had previously announced that Lethal would defend the title against A.J. Styles on December 18 at Final Battle. Elgin had earned the title shot by winning ROH's Survival of the Fittest tournament on November 14, stating afterwards that he wanted his shot in Japan. The match continues a working relationship between NJPW and the American ROH promotion, which started in 2014 and was set to continue later in 2016 with ROH holding shows in Japan and NJPW holding shows in North America. On December 18, Lethal retained the ROH World Championship against A.J. Styles, making the title match official for Wrestle Kingdom 10.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
Wrestle Kingdom I
Despite the fact that the match between Minoru Suzuki and Yuji Nagata at the inaugural Wrestle Kingdom was pushed as the final match in the 21-year rivalry, the two went on to face each other two more times in subsequent Wrestle Kingdom shows, first in 2011 at Wrestle Kingdom V and then in 2013 at Wrestle Kingdom 7, with Nagata winning both matches.
Jim Ross
Ross was hired by the World Wrestling Federation and made his on-screen debut at WrestleMania IX. He took over for Gorilla Monsoon on "WWF Wrestling Challenge" the following weekend. Ross worked alongside Bobby Heenan on the show until Heenan left the WWF in December 1993. Ross was originally the main voice of the WWF's pay-per-view events when he was first brought in, calling both WrestleMania IX and the King of the Ring with Heenan and Randy Savage in 1993. Vince McMahon took over his position at pay-per-views starting with SummerSlam 1993.
Wrestle Kingdom 13
The January 4 Tokyo Dome Show is NJPW's biggest annual event and has been called "the largest professional wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl". The show has been promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name since 2007.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
WrestleMania IX
The Undertaker's feud with Giant Gonzalez was an offshoot of The Undertaker's feud with manager Harvey Wippleman. The Undertaker defeated Kamala, who was managed by Wippleman, at SummerSlam 1992. A rematch was held at Survivor Series 1992, and The Undertaker beat Kamala in a coffin match. Wippleman vowed revenge, and he introduced Gonzalez at Royal Rumble 1993 and instructed him to attack The Undertaker. The Undertaker was eliminated from the Royal Rumble match as a result of the interference, and a match was scheduled between The Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez for WrestleMania IX.
Wrestle Kingdom 7
Wrestle Kingdom 7 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, 2013. It was the 22nd January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the seventh held under the "Wrestle Kingdom" name. The event featured eleven matches (including two dark matches), five of which were contested for championships. Wrestle Kingdom is traditionally NJPW's biggest event of the year and has been described as their equivalent to WWE's WrestleMania.
Honor Takes Center Stage
The second featured championship match saw Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) finally have a match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship having entered Ring of Honor the previous September. Their Glory By Honor IX debut against reigning champions The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) and lose in a non-title match. They returned to ROH as regulars from December onwards and defeated the Kings of Wrestling in another non-title match at "SoCal Showdown II", then went on to win a contendership match against the Briscoe Brothers at 9th Anniversary Show earning them a rubber match with the Kings, this time for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. On 7 March, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team issued a video challenge to the only major tag team in ROH they had not yet faced, the American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards), for a match on the second day of the event, which they soon accepted.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
Wrestle Kingdom 8
Tetsuya Naito used the snub he suffered at Wrestle Kingdom 8 to turn heel and form the "Los Ingobernables de Japon" stable. When he finally won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Okada in April 2016 at Invasion Attack, Naito had managed to turn his career around and was now fully embraced by the NJPW fans. There was another rematch between the two at Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4, 2018, with the same result as Okada retained against Naito.
King of the Ring (2010)
The 2010 King of the Ring was a special edition of "Raw". that aired on November 29, 2010, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The program featured the nineteenth King of the Ring tournament and first since 2008. Sheamus defeated John Morrison in the finals of the tournament to become King of the Ring. Unlike the previous tournament that featured wrestlers from the "Raw," "SmackDown" and "ECW" brands, the 2010 version of the tournament only featured wrestlers from "Raw" and "SmackDown" (following the closure of the ECW brand in February 2010). The last King of the Ring tournament which only featured wrestlers from both "Raw" and "SmackDown" was held in 2002 (following the WWE Brand Extension the previous month, but before the ECW brand was introduced as a third brand in 2006). Despite the event being mainly focused on the King of the Ring concept, the main event featured Jerry Lawler (who was celebrating his birthday that day) facing the new WWE Champion The Miz for the WWE Championship in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match which marked Lawler's first WWE Championship match. Lawler lost due to distractions from Alex Riley and Michael Cole. CM Punk was joined in commentary on the show.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
SummerSlam (1988)
In the late 1980s, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF)'s main competition in the professional wrestling industry was from Jim Crockett Promotions. McMahon countered Jim Crockett's successful Starrcade pay-per-view, which began airing in 1983, by creating the WrestleMania franchise. After WrestleMania III in March 1987, the most successful professional wrestling pay-per-view event in history, McMahon created the Survivor Series franchise, which aired the same day as Starrcade 1987 in November 1987. After defeating Crockett in the ratings war, McMahon created the Royal Rumble, an event airing for free on the USA Network in January 1988. The event set a ratings record for the network with eight million households tuning in to watch the event. In retaliation, Crockett created the Clash of the Champions event, which aired simultaneously with WrestleMania IV. WrestleMania IV garnered higher ratings, and not long after, Crockett filed for bankruptcy and sold his company to Ted Turner, who renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Wrestle Kingdom 10
Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4, 2016, in Tokyo, Japan, at the Tokyo Dome. It was the 25th 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 event featured ten matches and was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi.
SummerSlam (1999)
SummerSlam (1999) was the twelfth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on August 22, 1999, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This event is one of two events where the three major titles in the WWE (world, intercontinental and tag) all changed hands on the same night, the other being the 2009 edition of .
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
Power Struggle (2014)
The first matches for the event were revealed on October 14, 2014, the day after King of Pro-Wrestling. At King of Pro-Wrestling, A.J. Styles lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi, after a surprise return from NJPW original Yoshitatsu, who stopped his Bullet Club stablemate Jeff Jarrett from interfering in the match. The day after Styles' title loss, a match between him and Yoshitatsu was announced for Power Struggle. In pre-Power Struggle interviews, Yoshitatsu was given a new "Bullet Club hunter" character with him claiming that, while working for WWE, he had grown sick of seeing employees wearing Bullet Club shirts and was now looking to eliminate the villainous stable from professional wrestling. Also on October 14, the main event for January 4, 2015, and the Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome show between IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi and the 2014 G1 Climax winner Kazuchika Okada was made official. At Power Struggle, the two were set to face off in a tag team match, where Tanahashi would team with Kota Ibushi and Okada with his regular tag team partner Yoshi-Hashi. The third match announced for the event would see Shinsuke Nakamura defend his IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Katsuyori Shibata. The match came as a result of King of Pro-Wrestling, where Shibata and Hirooki Goto defeated Nakamura and Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match, after which Nakamura nominated Shibata as his next challenger. Nakamura and Shibata had previously faced off in a singles match on July 21, during the 2014 G1 Climax, where Shibata was victorious. In storyline the rivalry between the two dated back to a brawl in August 2004.
Royal Rumble (2006)
Royal Rumble (2006) was the nineteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was presented by Sony Computer Entertainment's "The Con". It took place on January 29, 2006, in the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida and featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a match at that year's WrestleMania, (in this instance: WrestleMania 22) for his choice at either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship.
The Mighty (professional wrestling)
On 20 December 2014, Haste and Nicholls made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), when they, along with Naomichi Marufuji, were revealed as Toru Yano's tag team partners at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on 4 January 2015. They would go on to win the match, defeating Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka).
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".
WrestleMania IX
In the United Kingdom, the event was released on VHS on July 5, 1993. Packaged together with WrestleMania X, it was released on DVD for the WWE Tagged Classics series on May 8, 2006.
The Kings of Wrestling
On December 19, 2009, at Final Battle 2009, Ring of Honor's first live pay-per-view, the Kings of Wrestling reunited as Hero and Castagnoli attacked the new ROH World Tag Team Champions, the Briscoe Brothers. Afterwards, The Kings of Wrestling once again became a stable with the additions of Sara Del Rey, whom Hero and Castagnoli dubbed the "Queen of Wrestling", and their manager Shane Hagadorn. Hero and Castagnoli attacked the Brisces once more at ROH's 8th Anniversary Show, also brawling with the Dark City Fight Club. In January 2010 Hero and Castagnoli entered Pro Wrestling Noah's Global Tag League, but ended up losing all three of their matches. On April 3, 2010, at The Big Bang! Hero and Castagnoli defeated the Briscoes to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the second time.
Shane Haste
On 20 December 2014, Haste and Nicholls made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling, when they, along with Naomichi Marufuji, were revealed as Toru Yano's tag team partners at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on 4 January 2015. At the event, the four defeated Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka) in an eight-man tag team match.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
James Caldwell of "Pro Wrestling Torch" stated that Wrestle Kingdom 10 was a "perfect example of how to build a card, especially leading to the final three matches with Shibata vs. Ishii hitting four-stars-plus, Nakamura vs. Styles going a little higher, and Tanahashi vs. Okada closing in epic fashion". He gave the main event a perfect five-star rating. Sean Radican of the same site gave the show an overall score of 10.0, stating that "the quality of the big matches on the card more than delivered", while acknowledging that it was a "flawed show in some ways". Mike Johnson of "Pro Wrestling Insider" stated that Wrestle Kingdom 10 was "far superior" to the previous year's Wrestle Kingdom 9. Larry Csonka of "411Mania" gave the event a rating of 9.25, calling it "excellent", stating that the final three matches "brought the show to another level". He, however, also criticized the first part of the show for its "lazy booking", noting how the first six matches all featured outside interference or weapon attacks with several also kicking off with pre-match attacks.
Survivor Series (1992)
Yokozuna's push continued, and he won the battle royal main event at Royal Rumble 1993 to earn a WWF World Heavyweight Championship match against Bret Hart at WrestleMania IX. At WrestleMania, he defeated Hart to win the title belt. He immediately challenged Hulk Hogan to a match however, and WrestleMania ended with Yokozuna losing the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Hogan in 21 seconds.
The Kingdom (professional wrestling)
On the September 18th, 2016 episode of "Ring of Honor Wrestling", Taven returned and announced that The Kingdom will be competing in the tournament for the new ROH 6-Man Tag Team Championship, but wouldn't announce his partners. On a match taped on October 1, 2016 for the October 23rd, 2016 episode of "Ring of Honor Wrestling", Matt Taven revealed TK O'Ryan and Vinny Marseglia as new members of The Kingdom and defeated Bullet Club to advance to the semi-finals of the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament. On the November 19 episode of ROH TV The Kingdom defeated Team CMLL (Hechicero, Okumura and Ultimo Guerrero) to advance to the finals at the Final Battle 2016 PPV. On December 2, The Kingdom defeated Jay White, Kushida and Lio Rush in the finals to become the inaugural ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions. On March 11, 2017, at Ring of Honor TV taping, Taven, Marseglia and Silas Young, who filled in for an injured TK O'Ryan, lost the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship to Bully Ray and The Briscoes.
Royal Rumble (1996)
Royal Rumble (1996) was the ninth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on January 21, 1996, at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
Wrestle Kingdom 10 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 10 was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. Okada won the title on July 5, 2015, by defeating A.J. Styles at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, while Tanahashi became the number one contender at the Tokyo Dome by winning the 2015 G1 Climax, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in the finals on August 16. On the road to the Tokyo Dome, Okada retained his title in a rematch with A.J. Styles, while Tanahashi defended his title match contract against Bad Luck Fale and Tetsuya Naito, the two wrestlers who had defeated him during the G1 Climax, leading to the Tokyo Dome match being made official on October 12. This would mark the seventh IWGP Heavyweight Championship match between Okada and Tanahashi with both wrestlers having won three of the previous matches. This also marked Tanahashi's sixth Wrestle Kingdom in a row main event with him having won all five previous main events, two of which were against Okada.
Wrestle Kingdom 12
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.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
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.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
In June 2014, New Japan announced a partnership with the new American Global Force Wrestling (GFW) organization helmed by Jeff Jarrett. In November 2014, GFW announced that it would be broadcasting NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on pay-per-view in the United States as a four-hour event. Also in November 2014, the American AXS TV network announced it had acquired rights to rebroadcast a series of thirteen episodes of NJPW matches from TV Asahi. The series premiered on January 16, 2015, airing weekly on Fridays. Averaging 200,000 viewers per episode, the show was considered a success, leading to AXS TV and TV Asahi signing a multi-year deal to continue airing the show. In June 2016, the show was also acquired by the Canadian Fight Network. On December 1, 2014, NJPW and TV Asahi announced NJPW World, a new worldwide streaming site for the promotion's events.
Royal Rumble (2005)
Royal Rumble (2005) was the eighteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was presented by PlayStation 2 and took place on January 30, 2005, at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California and featured talent from both the Raw and SmackDown! brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a match at that year's WrestleMania, (in this instance: WrestleMania 21) for his choice at either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship.
Royal Rumble (2009)
Royal Rumble (2009) was the twenty-second annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was presented by Castrol GTX and took place on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan and featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a championship match at that year's WrestleMania, (in this instance: WrestleMania XXV) for his choice at either the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship or the ECW Championship.
Wrestle Kingdom 8
Wrestle Kingdom 8 featured eleven 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 10
The rest of the matches for Wrestle Kingdom 10 were announced on December 10, including the seventh title match of the event, with Tomohiro Ishii defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Katsuyori Shibata. This match stemmed from the World Tag League, where Shibata pinned Ishii on both the opening and final day. This would mark Shibata's first ever NEVER Openweight Championship match. Another match stemming from the World Tag League saw Tetsuya Naito face Hirooki Goto, whom he pinned during the tournament. The feud between them had been going on since late 2015, though Naito had been more involved with Goto's tag team partner Katsuyori Shibata, while his "Los Ingobernables de Japon" stablemate Evil had been paired off with Goto. However, Shibata was abruptly taken out of the feud to challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship, leaving Goto to face off with Naito. NJPW implied that the winner of the match could be in line for a title shot. Also announced was the Bullet Club trio of Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi taking on Toru Yano and two mystery partners and the second annual New Japan Rumble, occurring on the pre-show. On December 19, Yano's partners were revealed as the ROH tag team The Briscoes (Jay and Mark). Two days later, NJPW announced that the match would be contested for the newly created NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.
King of the Ring
King of the Ring (1985) was the inaugural King of the Ring professional wrestling tournament produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The tournament was held on July 8, 1985 at the Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.