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.
The New Beginning in Hiroshima
Several matches during the event built to matches taking place at The New Beginning in Osaka two days later. The event also featured the NJPW debuts of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) representatives Michael Tarver and Big Daddy Yum-Yum, who unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the first title match of the event. The two other title matches were rematches from January 4's Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome event; in the first Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson made their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship against K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) and in the main event Hiroshi Tanahashi made his first successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura.