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.
RISE (professional wrestling)
In 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome, Milano, Minoru, and Taichi defeated Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Kazuchika Okada, and Nobuo Yoshihashi in the pre-show match, Devitt teamed Ryusuke Taguchi and Mistico to defeat Averno, Jado, and Gedo, and finally Nakamura and Goto defeated Mitsuharu Misawa and Takashi Sugiura. In late January, Minoru left New Japan and RISE to become a freelancer. On February 15, Nakamura challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship but lost. In March, Nakamura, Goto, and Milano entered the 2009 New Japan Cup. Milano and Nakamura both made it to round two while Goto was able to win the tournament defeating Giant Bernard in the finals. On April 5, at RESOLUTION '09, Nakamura turned Heel during his match with Togi Makabe when Toru Yano betrayed Makabe and assisted Nakamura during the match. Following the event, Nakamura left RISE and created a new stable: CHAOS. After Nakamura defected, RISE began to decline and despite the fact RISE would continue, the group largely went dormant as Goto returning to the New Japan Seikigun while Milano and Devitt would form teams and began feuding with each other.