Why Every Wrestling Fan Should Watch NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9

Although Monday’s episode of Raw kicked off the anticipated ‘Wrestlemania season’, in which WWE programming and storylines generally picks up momentum and direction, few would deny that the company has been in the doldrums over recent months.

There have been positives, sure; the impressive rise of Seth Rollins, the company finally recognising Dolph Ziggler’s talent and pushing him to the top of the card, and, despite some flawed booking, both Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt look to be on the right track.

Even so, for the No. 1 pro-wrestling company on the planet, WWE have made a real hash of some of their top talents and their direction over the Autumn to Winter months and, if we’re being honest, over the majority of the last few years. When the supposed developmental league (NXT) is outshining the main product on a regular basis, you have a major problem.

With so many disillusioned by WWE’s output – and that may include the wrestlers themselves after Vince McMahon’s now infamous appearance on Steve Austin’s podcast and his baffling ‘brass ring’ comment – it is clear that a viable No. 2 promotion is needed to step up and give wrestling fans a real alternative, especially for those who want more of a focus on, you know, wrestling.

New Japan Pro Wrestling is that promotion and Sunday night could be the moment that the most consistently entertaining pro-wrestling outfit around today step up and grab a brass ring of their own.

Since Gedo and Jado took the helm as bookers of NJPW, the top company in Japan has been on an upward trajectory. Smart long term booking, pushing young talent alongside the established stars and, most importantly, the workers being given the platform to deliver world class matches in the ring on a regular basis have all combined to make New Japan shows a must-see.

2014 was a banner year for the Japanese company. The established roster continued to deliver incredible matches, while more international stars were brought into the fold.

In stark contrast to WWE and TNA, New Japan has built its roster to the point that 10-15 wrestlers will now be accepted as headline worthy superstars. Each wrestler having their own clear style and identity is a part of that, as is the quality of the matches produced by the talent. However, the company also pushes the importance of wins and losses, and titles are treated as the prizes they should be. It’s a startlingly different attitude to WWE in recent years, where wins and losses mean little, championships are frequently devalued, and few wrestlers are accepted in the main event due to the ‘no-one is bigger than Cena’ mentality of the boss.

In addition, the heralded NJPW G1 Climax in the summer was almost certainly the best tournament ever held in pro-wrestling history, with the wrestlers banging out 4-star and 5-star matches left, right and centre.

Most significantly of all for NJPW in 2014, perhaps, was the signing of indie darling AJ Styles.

After Styles refused to extend his contract with TNA, and WWE appeared to show little interest in signing the 36-year-old, many feared for the career prospects of ‘The Phenomenal One’.

Instead, Styles made an instant impact as a free agent, signing with New Japan and turning in perhaps the best year of his in-ring career to date. Styles’ IWGP heavyweight championship win over poster boy Kazuchika Okada was another example of the brave booking of Gedo and Jado.

Despite being well known to wrestling fans in the U.S, Canada and Europe, Styles was not such a star in Japan. Initially, he was greeted with a lukewarm response from a Japanese fanbase largely unfamiliar with his work, but NJPW stuck with him as champion and Styles quickly won people over with his tremendous performances inside the squared circle, getting fans to hate him in the desired manner in his role as leader of the Bullet Club faction.

>Now, although Styles dropped the IWGP belt to Hiroshi Tanahashi in October, New Japan have a big American star at the top of the card, one who could prove to be the kind of crossover talent the promotion needs to make a real dent in the U.S market.

Naturally, the language barrier has been the aspect of the product which has proven most difficult for attracting new viewers to NJPW. Although most fans of the product would argue that English commentary is not necessary due to the compelling, logical stories told by the wrestlers in the ring, there is no doubt that a U.S commentary team is needed to communicate the product to a certain section of wrestling fans.

Step forward Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling and commentary team Jim Ross and Matt Striker. The partnership between NJPW and GFW could prove invaluable to the Japanese promotion, with Jarrett’s upstart company broadcasting the Dome show in the U.S. The addition of Ross and Striker to the commentary booth is a master-stroke as the talent of both announcers (Striker is a lot better than his later WWE career would have you believe and JR is the greatest wrestling commentator of all time) will help to better communicate the product to an English speaking audience.

The pairing should also help bring an excitement to the play-by-play, something which the WWE announce team seem to have left long in the past, and the thought of good ol’ JR’s reactions to the stiffness of some of the New Japan talents’ work should be entertaining in and of itself.

That brings us to Wrestle Kingdom 9 on January 4.

The highly anticipated Tokyo Dome show is NJPW’s version of Wrestlemania and the card assembled by the company could be one of the best in years.

The stacked card and must-see match-ups are a testament, not only to the talent of the wrestlers, but to the long-term planning of the booking team.

In the main event, IWGP champion Hiroshi Tanahashi squares off with rival ‘Rainmaker’ Kazuchika Okada. Given the two men’s history against one another, the match is a no-brainer to headline the company’s biggest show to date.

Tanahashi and Okada have the best in-ring chemistry of any two wrestlers in the business today. Their four match series in 2013 was the most critically acclaimed rivalry in years, producing four classic contests, two of which got the fabled 5-star treatment from Dave Meltzer.

Smartly, after Tanahashi lost the final match of the series in October 2013, he was kept away from the IWGP title scene for an entire year.

As Okada defended his title against all comers and began to carve out his own path and identity as champion, and then as challenger in his series with AJ Styles, Tanahashi moved into a series with Shinsuke Nakamura over the Inter Continental championship and an intense feud with ultra-realistic worker Katsuyori Shibata, fuelled by genuine dislike between the two, before getting his long awaited title shot against then champ AJ Styles in October 2014, 12 months after he was last seen in an IWGP title match.

It means that when Tanahashi and Okada meet in the Dome this weekend, there is a genuine anticipation to once again see the two lock horns and the match and the rivalry could prove to be New Japan’s version of Stone Cold vs. The Rock.

Making the match even more compelling is the fact that there is genuine doubt over who will win what some might call the biggest match in NJPW history.

The 27-year-old Okada is clearly the future of the company. It was a huge shock when ‘The Rainmaker’ first beat Tanahashi in 2012 following his disappointing TNA run but the gamble paid off for NJPW as Okada has grown into a dependable and believable champion who can work a great match with just about anyone. The former champion has all the tools to be top dog in New Japan for the next decade; the look, the gimmick, the skills and the best finisher in the business.

Tanahashi, however, is the biggest star in Japan and the company may want to give him a feel good win on the biggest show of the year, as well as giving the 38-year-old what could be his final run on top of the promotion.

The rest of the card is filled with potential Match of the Year candidates. The always entertaining Shinsuke Nakamura defending his IC title against the incredible Kota Ibushi should see the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion make the final step up to the heavyweight main event scene. If the match between the two is anywhere near the quality of their 2013 meeting, fans are in for a treat.

AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito features two of the best workers in the business. Their high flying, technical styles meshed well when they wrestled in July and the two will be eager to top that match at the Dome.

The IWGP heavyweight tag title match should see Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto finally dethrone the Bullet Club team of Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson, but it is the IWGP junior heavyweight tag title match which could steal the show. A four corner match between reDRagon, the Young Bucks, Forever Hooligans and Time Splitters for the belts features primarily U.S wrestlers and the high flying, high impact style of all eight participants should create some of the most memorable spots of the year.

The other two title matches could also be show stealers. The IWGP junior heavyweight championship match between old foes Rysuke Taguchi and Kenny Omega may well see another American capture gold in the promotion, and feature flashy moves aplenty playing off the two men’s history in their tag team feud as members of Apollo 55 and Golden Lovers respectively. The NEVER title bout between Tomohiro Ishii and Togi Makabe will likely see Ishii want to continue his astonishing streak of MOTY contenders, despite carrying a multitude of injuries at the age of 39.

The Wrestle Kingdom 9 card is a layered one, with numerous compelling match-ups, which should offer something for everyone; from the battle royal featuring legends of the promotion, to six and eight man tags, to the multitude of title bouts. The only dud on the card would appear to be Minoru Suzuki vs. ageing MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba, which seems like a bit of a waste of the hardman Suzuki’s talents, who when motivated is one of the absolute best in the business (see his classic, MOTY contender with AJ Styles from August for evidence of that).

There are still a number of wrestling fans who have yet to give NJPW a try. Perhaps this is because of the language barrier, a lack of knowledge of who the wrestlers are, or even not knowing where exactly to start when a company has such a dauntingly rich back catalogue of quality matches.

To those fans, I implore them to watch Wrestle Kingdom on Sunday night / Monday morning. The January 4 show is the perfect place for viewers to start, given the number of quality matches on display, as well as the culmination of several well booked rivalries and feuds. With the U.S commentary team in tow, there is no excuse.

For so long, people have wanted a genuine No. 2 promotion, an alternative to the WWE’s monopoly on the industry. NJPW has proven over the last several years that it can be that alternative, not only for fans but for talented wrestlers like AJ Styles and the Young Bucks who don’t necessarily fit the WWE mould.

Now, all wrestling fans should give NJPW a chance. Buy the PPV this weekend and enjoy the best wrestling has to offer. You won’t regret it.

What do you think? Will you be watching Wrestle Kingdom 9? And can New Japan be a genuine alternative to the WWE in the U.S?

If you enjoy the column, you can follow me on Twitter at @AlexWattMMA

And check out my MMA writing on the Mirror Online.

Thanks for reading.