Official New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW - Wrestle Kingdom 9 (2 Disc DVD)

This review may contain minor spoilers.I don't want to get too bogged down in the differences between the NJPW 'puroresu' style of pro wrestling and the more accessible North American style of 'sports entertainment' wrestling (for those needing/wanting a more detailed explanation, please see my review of An Introduction to New Japan Pro Wrestling). All I'll add about this particular DVD is that Wrestle Kingdom is NJPW's equivalent of WWE's WrestleMania. It's their biggest show of the year, held annually at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th, and usually the best WRESTLING card you'll get.Wrestle Kingdom 9 (held in 2015) is, according to many, the finest Wrestle Kindgom to date. I don't want to comment on that, as any opinion is entirely subjective. But for me, Wrestle Kindgom is usually the best wrestling event of the year, regardless of which installment you're talking about.The event follows the same basic formula every year; a few rushed and largely meaningless tag bouts designed to whet the collective appetite of the audience, all in preparation for the 'serious' bouts that follow.Unlike companies such as WWE, wins and losses in NJPW actually MEAN something, and titles are treated with respect and dignity - as opposed to the largely inconsequential waist jewellery they amount to in most North American companies.Anyhow, to the matches. . . .IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPReDRagon (c) (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly - now of NXT) vs. Forever Hooligans (Alex Kozlov & Rocky Romero) vs. Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)An entertaining but disappointingly brief opener that serves only as a spot parade for all four teams. You won't be bored, but you won't remember it either. Score 6/10Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma vs. The Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett & Yujiro Takahashi)An entirely redundant bout and a blatant nostalgia pop for Tenzan, Kojima and Honma. Fast forward through this. Score 3/10Naomichi Marufuji, Toru Yano and TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste - now TM-61 members Nick Miller and Shane Thorne in NXT) vs. Suzuki-Gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr, Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin & Takashi Iizuka)The third filler bout in an row exposes the truly awful Davey Boy Smith Jr. as being completely out of his depth. Again, the match isn't BAD, but it has no place on a card of this magnitude. Score 5/10Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazushi SakurabaThe first singles contest on the card is a special stipulation bout that can only be won by knockout, submission or referee stoppage. Both men are well past their primes here and Sakuraba particularly can barely walk, he's so broken down. That fact alone makes it doubly scary when you see how these two go at it. This contest is, once again, all about nostalgia and a sense of unfinished business. However, if you aren't familiar with the history of the participants, then the emotional gravitas will be entirely lost on you, and you'll just see two creaky old fossils who should have packed it in years ago. Score 6/10NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIPTomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Togi MakabeThis contest, featuring the Stone Pitbull taking on the Unchained Gorilla is perhaps the most intriguing bout on the card. It's built around two tough as nails dudes beating the living daylights out of each other with hard chops and lariats, until one falls down and loses. Depending on whether or not you like this kind of wrestling (it goes WAY beyond strong style) will dictate how much you like this bout. Personally, watching two bone heads give one another brain damage doesn't appeal much to me, but if that's your bag, then this contest certainly ticks all the boxes. Score: 7/10IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIPRyusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Kenny OmegaNow, this is where the card begins to hot up. Omega has a reputation (deservedly so) as being one of the best gaijins (foreigners) competing in Japan, and while this bout doesn't quite showcase his incredible skills to the degree that his clashes with Chris Jericho and Kazuchika Okada do, it's still a thoroughly entertaining contest. Great stuff. Score 8/10IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPThe Bullet Club (Doc Gallows & 'Machine Gun' Karl Anderson) vs. Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata)A little gem of a contest, which could have been a classic if the participants had been allotted ten more minutes. The Bullet Club show what they're truly capable of when not restricted to the anemic style of WWE, though it's obvious that the superb Karl Anderson carries the much larger and very limited Doc Gallows. The criminally underrated Katsuyori Shibata is on typically excellent form here, and Goto gets to show his stuff too. The wrong team won, which is a shame, but this is still highly entertaining stuff. Bravo. Score 7/10AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya NaitoThe Phenomenal One proves once again that his moniker is accurate with this absolute belter against NJPW's perennial nearly man Tetsuya Naito, who hasn't always connected with the Japanese fans, but is undoubtedly the hardest worker in the company. Excellent stuff. Score: 8/10IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIPShinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kota IbushiNow, the term 'classic' is thrown around far too often in the wrestling world, and almost never deservedly. However, this might just be one of the finest wrestling matches of all time. I've been a fan of wrestling for nearly 38 years and this bout easily makes my top five favourites. It's emotional, it's brutal, it's MESMERISING. WWE could only dream of putting on a match this good. It's even better than the match between the same participants at 2013's G1 Climax - itself an undisputed classic (and available on An Introduction to New Japan Pro Wrestling). This isn't wrestling, this is physical poetry. Utterly astounding and without a doubt the best match on the card. You NEED to see this. Score. . . .well I can't score this bout. Or let's just call it a zillion out of ten.IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIPHiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika OkadaThe main event of Wrestle Kingdom 9 couldn't top the pure brilliance of the Nakamura/Ibushi classic, but it had a bloody good go, and is sublime in its own right. If HBK Shawn Michaels is 'Mr. WrestleMania' then surely Hiroshi Tanahashi must be considered 'Mr. Wrestle Kingdom'? He connects with the NJPW in a way that few others ever have, is arguably the most complete performer in NJPW history and will rightly go down as one of the best ever - not only in Japan, but the entire world. Then there's Kazuchika Okada -arguably the best in the world right now. The Rainmaker is simply on another level to everyone else. To be honest, it's not hard to see why NJPW was widely considered the best wrestling promotion around in 2015. They had the trinity of Nakamura, Tanahashi and Okada in the fold - the best three wrestlers in the world, and could also boast the likes of Omega, Styles, Shibata and Naito. My word. Anyhow, the match between Tanahashi and Okada is a tour de force, and the latter's selling is heart wrenching to behold. This was the biggest match of 2015 and it FELT like it. Simply superb. Score: 10/10In summation: If you love NJPW, or are interested in getting to know NJPW, then you could do a lot worse than Wrestle Kingdom 9. It's a show of two halves, but I honestly don't mind that; the disposable, pedestrian opening contests make the big bouts feel, well. . .BIGGER.As for the DVD itself, it includes a few pointless interviews with the WK9 competitors, but that's it. For the hefty price tag, a few extra bouts would have been nice.An essential purchase for any NJPW or 'proper' wrestling fan.