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.
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.