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WRESTLE KINGDOM 9 in TOKYO DOME (with Spoilers!)


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I watched it twice today.  Fuck it.  JR was fine on the last two matches.  Striker could have been worse.  Great fucking show.  I found it funny that the US version didn't dub the entrance music like the World version does.

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Jim Ross definitely got better as the show went along.  He was quite rough during the first half and certain points.  My only problem with Striker is he tries to oversell shit way too much.  He doesn't need to say crap like marking out.  He did clearly help guide JR through certain parts, but then he would say something stupid to take away from that.  It didn't hurt the show for me and really wasn't that bad, that's just how it kind of came off.

 

Loved the whole event.  Not sure if this was due to the Japan broadcast, but I was a little disappointed with the widescreen aspect ratio considering I paid $44.99 for the HD feed on a widescreen flatscreen TV.  Either way, I was pretty satisfied with the purchase and the whole event.

 

Loved Nakamura's whole style and character.  He is a total package.  For the main event, loved Tanahashi using all the variations of the dragon screw.  Not sure if he was saving it for later or not, but JR seemed especially on point for the main event.  One thing I liked JR doing was all the MMA factoids, which he seemed pretty well versed on.

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I have finished my incredibly long official review!  I watched it live this morning and then again to do the play by play, so I can confirm it was an awesome event.  I thought Nakamura/Ibushi was quite a bit better than the main but it was quite a bit better than any match I can remember in recent memory so that isn't much of an insult.  Great show, whether its with American or Japanese commentators I definitely recommend it.

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I paid for this and watched the replay at 7EST. I really enjoyed this show. Outside of front-loading too many tags early in the card, I thought this show did a great job of offering variety throughout the card, and the big spots felt important because noone went overkill with the high spots. 

 

I was a little surprised by who went over in the main event, but I can understand the logic of doing that if it leads to the FINAL ENCOUNTER down the line.

 

Nakamura/Ibushi is going to be tough to unseat as my match of the year. I have never experienced a match that flipped the switch from "this is okay" into "I want to stand up and applaud both guys for letting me witness this clsasic!"

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Just finished the show. Those last two matches were otherworldy. The semi-main is going to be hard to beat for MOTY. 

 

The main event was a pure epic and got better as it went along. Haven't been that shocked by a finish in a very long time. 

 

The whole show was just great. ReDragon is wonderful, Suzuki gets a definitive win to go on to something better than Yano, the NOAH guys are now put over strong, AJ is solidified as a top 4 guy  and Shibato/Goto and Omega can reboot their divisions. 

 

 Nakamura and Tanahashi are by far the biggest draws and really have a ton of steam left in them. Attendance figure being disappointing to some or whatever aside, those guys are clearly the guys for 2015 and I'd imagine in a year we may see Ibushi and Okada back in the same spots to finally knock them off. 

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Awesome to see this, show was good stuff. Especially the last 2 matches obviously. I thought JR was really good, again especially in the last two, very enjoyable. I must've missed the legendary marking out bro from Striker, lmfao that's classic. Anyone know when exactly that was at? Nakamura/Ibushi was fantastic and the Okada/Tanahashi series is always great. Thought Styles looked really good here as well and Archer's chokeslam is a great highlight reel moment. Tag titles match was real fun as well. Definitely hope this isn't a one off and that JR does more. JR loving Okada's dropkick was the best.  Great overall presentation. Without some of the more typical grand entrances, I still highly enjoyed Nakamura's and Suzuki's Kaze Ni Nare!

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Some of my favorite moments, in GIF form (spoilered just because GIFs can slow shit down):

Ibushi with the suplex over the top rope:

fYkizUr.gif

 

Ibushi with a unique counter to the Boma Ye:

Fk38K8i.gif

 

Tanahashi dives off the top turnbuckle, over the railing to the floor:

SN3yebK.gif

 

And finally, the monster chokeslam by Archer:

wnxBgIv.gif

I did more, but those are my favorites.  Lots of memorable moments though which you always want to see in any event.

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This was the first full show I've seen since 2007. Great, great show. Same as Zeidler, my interest in pro-wrestlig has been rekindled.

Nakamura/Ibushi will be hard to beat as MOTY indeed. (I hope Zayn and Owens will at least try though.)

 

I loved, when Jim Ross read out loud what the acronym NEVER stands for.

 

 

Incredible, memorable show. This is the only time in wrestling history that we’ve had two five star matches back to back. It may never happen again. These two matches were beyond special and the fact that they happened one after another was amazing.

 

As Tanahashi got the pin, I felt it was the wrong call but I didn’t want to piss & moan about it because the match was so incredible. Then I saw OKada in the aisle with Gedo – it was the most powerful imagery I’ve seen in a long long time, and then the story clicked with me and I realised that Tana winning was 100% the way to go.

 

Okada conquered the Tanahashi mountain in 2013. He had surpassed the ace. It was a pretty standard story – a classic story when done right, and they did it right. But the story has taken a twist. Tanahashi came back on him. He didn’t knock Okada back down the mountain – he just made it higher. Now Okada is staring up again, and it’s even more daunting a climb. Okada has become an incredibly sympathetic character which I thought was impossible given his talent, swagger and natural ability. Tanahashi with this win, has become a truly legendary figure.

 

This result did a huge amount for both guys, their feud, their story and New Japan in general

 

Alan4L is the Puroresu-Greggulator.

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New Year Dash is going on now. So far Liger said his next challenger will be...TM IV? I might be wrong on that one. Bad Luck Fale pinned Okada clean in the middle of the ring. Nagata challenged Nakamura for the IC belt. Cody Hall is the "young boy" of the Bullet Club (i.e. not an official member yet).

 

And AJ Styles just pinned Tanahashi clean with the Styles Clash and challenged Tanahashi to a rematch for the IWGP title. Both Okada and Tanahashi were taped up and selling injuries from the night before.

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I think Kenny Omega's current chracter is he's a guy playing a guy who's doing a modern day rendition of mid 90's Pillman, if that makes any sense.

 

When I see Omega now I think a much better worker, flippy version of Cliff Compton.  Have to think that Doc Gallows was part of the character

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Watched the GFW version and absolutely loved it.  I thought JR was great and Striker was very good as well, aside from the "I'm marking out, bro!" parts.  US fans who loved JR will hopefully appreciate him putting over the NJPW guys hard.  His love for Okada's dropkick was awesome.

 

The matches themselves were great.  I'm not sure if I enjoyed Nakamura/Ibushi or Iishi/Makabe more.  Iishi/Makabe was such a wonderfully brutal match that told the story well.  Nakamura/Ibushi was just straight epic between the awesome entrance and the match itself.  AJ/Naito was really good as was the main event.  I felt the Tanahashi/Okada match from 10/13 was better, but there's nothing wrong with liking this one more.  Okada post-match brought the heavy and just cemented how much that loss affected him (could that be the storyline reason Fale beat him the next day?)

 

I can't imagine American fans not finding something to like about this.  I'm very much glad I got this and NJPW World.  I'm hoping they do more of these worldwide broadcasts as the hype was huge.  Luckily this show more than lived up to that.

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As someone who didn't watch much New Japan ever, this show might have gotten me to start. Nakamura/Ibushi was just completely fantastic. I liked Ibushi for his high spot stuff, but this felt like a coming out party for him as a credible heavyweight threat even though he's still a Junior. The thing that's great about him is that just about everything he used yesterday, Flippy or not, had impact. They looked painful. Most of the times, very painful. That will be hard to surpass as MOTY, and should be 5 star match on bullshit Meltzer points.

Oh, and for reference, Nakamura was incredible in that match. Arguably the best performance by a wrestler in a match I've seen in years.

As for the commentary, I LOVED Ross on these shows. It took him awhile to get going, but half way in, he was just fucking on. I believe he had a call of "If there are two matches back to back as good as this at any time this year, I hope I'm right there watching it with you" was fucking perfect.

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first japanese show i've ever watched in full and pretty much first japanese i've watched in general. 

This show was fucking awesome, I watched with JR commentary, which I didn't think was great, but at least gave me some info on the dudes and what was happening, and he did get better as the show went.  I thought Striker was better than JR in general.  Both were better than anything WWE produces, as they actually called the match and explained the psychology.

I really liked every match except for the multiman tag matches, they were blah.  I think the main even was my favorite, but that may change. In this order

Main - Intercontinental - never title - aj match - 4 way tag - jr title match - sakuraba match - tag title match

4 way tag might move up, but it got lost in the shuffle when I got disinterested for 20 min during the multiman tags.

Great show though, I'll probably try to follow it more often. 

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I loved this show, the last two matches were everything I wanted.  J.R. was up and down, but he was on fire for the last few matches.  His introduction of Nakamura was the perfect way to introduce that weirdo to a wide audience.  He loves Freddy Mercury, Michael Jackson, and is a bad ass.  I remember the first time I saw him I was trying to figure out in my mind how to describe him, and Ross' description fit like a glove.  Nakamura is about as charasmatic of a wrestler as I've ever seen and Ibushi really stepped up his game here.  I don't know who is better than Nakamura right now, and Ibushi working with the NJPW upper card will do nothing but help him reach his sky high potential.

 

The main event was great.  It may have been a step below Nakamura/Ibushi as far as a single match, it made up for it as the beginning of a third act of an extended story.  Okada is clearly going to be the future ace, and everyone thought this was going to be the final torch pass.  Tanahashi winning and cutting that, "You have a long way to go," promo added another level to a story that most thought was over.  Okada is the guy they are banking on for their future, and putting him in the role of the sympathetic babyface just adds to his ascent.  He was the young, hot shot, who went over Tanahashi when no one expected it and up until this point he was playing with house money.  Now he is in a position where people expect him to beat Tanahashi, and he couldn't get the job done.  Tanahashi, took everything he had, then destroyed him with High Fly Flows, and then essentially treated him like a chump.  When he goes over Tanahashi for good, it is going to feel like a special moment.

 

Did anyone else laugh out loud when Striker was talking about how Jrs. were under 220 lbs. and then they showed Koslov's pudgy ass?  Did he make a new years resolution to get out of shape?

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Is there any reason why ReDragon and Jarrett had different music for the GFW and Japanese versions?  ReDragon had their ROH theme overdubbed whereas Jarrett's was his TNA theme.  It wasn't a bad overdub as they had that echo effect to it, and I'm not sure I would have noticed it.  But watching the Japanese version it had me awfully curious.  Maybe it's due to music rights?  If so, what explains the Led Zeppelin cover being allowed?

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Its something with the broadcast rights in Japan between TV and Internet.  The rules are different.  So while all music is fine in TV, anything NJPW doesn't own themselves or has the rights to (like the RoH Themes), they can't broadcast online.  

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