How many people watched Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome?
Wrestle Kingdom 9
The event was attended by 36,000 people. Through NJPW's partnership with Global Force Wrestling (GFW), the event was broadcast with English commentary as a GFW event. It was available on PPV television in the United States and Canada, and broadcast worldwide on the Internet via Flipps and New Japan Pro Wrestling World. Critics issued positive reviews; Philly.com said it featured "good, quality wrestling", while Paste magazine said it presented "some of the most passionate and poignant performance art today". Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted Wrestle Kingdom 9 the Best Major Wrestling Show of 2015; they also named the Ibushi–Nakamura match as the 2015 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year.
The New Beginning in Hiroshima
Several matches during the event built to matches taking place at The New Beginning in Osaka two days later. The event also featured the NJPW debuts of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) representatives Michael Tarver and Big Daddy Yum-Yum, who unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the first title match of the event. The two other title matches were rematches from January 4's Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome event; in the first Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson made their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship against K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) and in the main event Hiroshi Tanahashi made his first successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura.