I really enjoyed the show. So much better than wwe as far as in ring action went. I love the style so much more.

Jim Ross did well for doing something for the first time past the age of 60. I hope him and Striker work together again as the chemistry was obviously developing.

I thought the wrestling, while good, never quite reached the peaks of the best Japanese wrestling I've seen (even women's wrestling; Manami Toyota is one of the GOAT). Ibushi will be a legend one day.

I still haven't watched the show because I've been sick, sleeping a ton, and not able to concentrate. I will be watching the first two hours tonight though. These are the ratings from Meltzer:

Okada vs Tanahashi ****3/4 This was the same rating as their 2013 WK match. I thought this was infinitely better as I didn't care too much for the other (not bad but wasn't special either).
Nakamura vs Ibushi *****
Makabe vs Ishii ****1/2
AJ Styles vs Naito ****1/4
4-way Jr tag ****
Omega vs Taguchi ***3/4
Suzuki vs Sakuraba ***3/4

I didn't catch his ratings for the battle royal or tag heavyweight match.

How does it stack up to previous events? As can be seen by the ratings, it should easily be on of the best shows, not of 2015, but ever. I have no problem with the ratings of the top two matches as I did think that Ibushi/Naka was slightly better than the main event though I could see both being 5* anyways.

If you want to watch some of the best of NJPW events, #1 on your list is 2013 G-1 Climax Day 4. Has 5* match between Ishii and Shibata as well as ****3/4 main event of Nakamura vs Ibushi. Also 2014 G-1 Climax Day 7 arguably has 7 ****+ matches on it. Domination 2012 and King of Pro Wrestling 2012 are damn good as is Invasion Attack 2013. Those are the five I'd recommend to people getting into NJPW. Of course WK 7 and 8 are way up there as well but I wanted to stick to the non Wrestlemania events.

I just rewatched the Nakamura / Ibushi match. Very enjoyable. It's weird-- a wrestling promotion offers wrestling and so wrestling fans enjoy it, unlike WWE, which offers... I don't know what they offer...

Anyway, enough of my nonsense, if you want to check it out, here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLHbbg4We2o

4.5 minutes into this - haven't never watched a single second of this promotion before - and I already care about it more than all but maybe 3 matches WWE has put out in the last 5 years. It's an amazing concept to have your announcers hype up their history, how good they are, the title, their popularity, and the stakes at hand. Excited to watch this through, thanks for the link.


Edit: That was awesome. Just an incredible combination of ring work and storytelling there. I really liked how different the ring work itself is to what I'm used to. Very hard hitting but also more fluid instead of just a series of spots. How frequently do they have English broadcasts? I'll be watching them whenever they do.

I highly recommend you watch the whole event.

They have a weekly English show starting this week on AXS TV. Friday night 9 pm eastern.

@jimhalpert--

Yeah, as someone that had never watched NJPW prior to WK9, I had the same reaction you did to this. It was so refreshing and enjoyable.

This match reminds me why I started wrestling in the first place as a little kid-- showmanship/pageantry, athleticism, different body types of guys duking it out with controlled violence, and in a setting where there's some logic (i.e. good selling).

I'm hoping to be able to start watching the weekly show.

Going to do that at some point tonight. Can I get a card order since I'm going to be bouncing around matches on youtube?

Excellent, ty




Maybe a thread for it would help us new people keep up watching it? Idk if there's any interest in that.

Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett(MMA fighter) are commentating the NJPW show on AXS and they are awesome.

Glorious.

For those interested NJPW World is free this month, so it's a good chance to get your feet wet on the product.

Awesome. I had no idea. Thanks for the tip, will def investigate.

Yeah big thanks for that tip, going to check that out tonight.

Is there some sort of PPV tonite?

New Beginning Night 1 from Osaka is on 2/11. Night 2 from Sendai is on 2/14.

Watched New Beginning Night 1 today and really enjoyed it. Great title match.

I think somebody asked in another thread and I thought about making a thread about it but how come nobody is watching NJPW in English? It's the best promotion on the planet. They even have a US tv show now that is showing classics from 2012-current.

Ep 1: Tanahashi vs Okada from WK 7 (2013)
Ep 2: Goto vs Okada from May 2012 (I think)
Ep 4: Makabe vs Okada from ??? too lazy to look up but it's a title defense for Okada in 2013 or early 2014

Couldn't find ep 3.

WrestleKingdom 9 is on DM in English by JR and Striker. Part 1 is here. Go watch what will likely be the top two matches of the year in the double main event.

The NJPW episodes are in chronological order.

Full list http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/5431...ish-commentary

Meltzer calls Episode 3 the best hour of televised wrestling ever. http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/201...sode-3-review/

Thanks for the links!

Just finished episode one. I really like this. The wrestling style is great, and I'm into these announcers. It's pretty awesome to have announcers that don't just act as shills for whatever product Vince is pushing this week (the network, the next PPV, Twitter hashtags, the app, etc).

Made the bar watch tonite's episode. People got into it, which was cool.

http://imgur.com/vraqCRw

I'm catching the english episode of NJPW finally, and while I enjoy the entire show (especially how seriously they take it) I just absolutely love the in ring style. Nakamura's match specifically tonight was an enjoyable watch. The slow methodical start shifting into the taunting/counters, and then then hard striking style just really works for me. And the match tells a simple but effective story. It just makes sense. I'll be catching up on the first seven eps.

AXS renewed, so there's gonna be a season 2. The match listing looks pretty sweet.

http://allwrestling.com/news/81643/n...atch-listings/