Wrestle Kingdom 9
On August 10, 2014, NJPW made two announcements. Firstly, Wrestle Kingdom 9 would be held at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2015. Secondly, NJPW revealed a partnership with Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling, which it approached about bringing the event to a new market. On November 4, GFW announced that it would present the event live on American pay-per-view television and that it had a PPV market of 125 million homes.
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.