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mystic: I might write a running diary to post in the cf…not sure yet. mizfan: You would be my hero if you did. mystic: Well, then, consider it done! This ideal was met with much opposition (as you will read below). This report doesn’t do justice to every wrestler, nor does it cover the action of the matches in all their specifics (as you will see, the writing took place in the days that followed). I have posted this diary--this running-stumbling diary--as one experience of one wrestling fan who had the highest expectations going into WK9. Like Jeff Jarrett trying to change the way we see wrestling, challenges emerge. But we watch and we write and we share. This is my offering.  Sunday First Take Pre-Gaming 6:30: I have been on a social media blackout for 18 hours now. And it’s more than worth it. I’ve just arrived at the house where I am watching WK9, which is my parents’ house, so that my older brother can watch, too. I don’t expect him to show, though, as he has plans with his daughter. Real-life. Grown-up life. But I’m not sure how different it is: his making time for the one who is, right now, the center of his life, and my making time for what was, from 1991-1998, the center of my life. Pro Wrestling. The real stuff. God, bless Jeff Jarrett. I said it on Twitter--his legacy is far greater than most give him credit for. If you are sedated by a WWE-only or WWE-mostly mentality, you will never fully understand what Jeff Jarrett has done for pro wrestling (and for audiences that need an alternative), post-WCW. He stepped up when Hulk Hogan didn’t (could have but didn’t), when Randy Savage didn’t, when other big names who had opportunities, didn’t. He gave us TNA, and now he has given us a promotion that is starting with more than a shock-value name. He is giving us GFW, and, within 30 minutes, the biggest PPV in New Japan Pro Wrestling will be on display in the house where I grew up (the house where I watched NWA and WCW), and I will get to hear Jim Ross in the way he was meant to be heard. As more than the WWE-leased ‘Good ol’ JR’. I want to hear him unleashed. I don’t care if he makes a mistake from time-to-time (as he mentioned worrying about mispronouncing names). I just want to hear him cut loose and be a fan, be a fan and commentator, of dead-serious pro wrestling. I have pizza and I have pro wrestling and I’m in my parents’ house: that is, honestly, the trifecta of my childhood. I just want to stress this one more time so you don’t miss it: this man I’ve never spoken to, Jeff Jarrett (that’s J-E-double F…for you WWE fans), had so much vision that he went and made a thing happen where there was no blueprint for it. Because he is a visionary and promoter and because he gives his life to this, I am now outside my house, in my parents’ house, watching a PPV that I paid for that makes me feel like I’m 10 years old again. Jeff Jarrett did that. Nobody else is doing anything like that. But Jeff Jarrett did. This might be a one-time thing for me. I’m not sure a AAA PPV would do me like NJPW (Alex Shelley is my favorite wrestler, I’ve loved Japanese culture since Jushin Liger and Nintendo, JR is commentating, Styles and Gallows are there, and there is the promise of the Okada/Tanahashi main event). But, for one night, let me speak from my wishes, even if they exceed reality. My wish for 2015? That Global would be the pro wrestling word of the year. That we would finally find a map that recreates the magic of the territories, only a map for a global, world-wide organization. That someone, Jarrett, would connect the dots that have been possible for far too long. Some keywords as I prepare to start this show: Difference, Variation, Magic. There is a difference, first, in how I feel. This is not WWE which, even at its best, doesn’t do it for me. This is not TNA who, even when they hooked me 3 times, changed writers and champions and directions so sharply I could no longer identify the show I was watching. This is New Japan Pro Wrestling and it’s also Global Force Wrestling. This is Wrestle Kingdom 9 but it’s also a bridge between, with our tour guides Jim Ross and Matt Striker. Tonight is a variation of anything we have seen or known and, for that very reason, it is history being made. And because it fills so many gaps for so many fans who have been displaced, for us, It will be magic. 6:55: Nerves! How nice to feel nervous for something that isn’t mine. Nervous and Excited! This is not a building we’re used to (though it’s one that has a legacy), it’s not a crowd we’re used to (though there will be an energy unlike other crowds), it’s not a card we’re used to (but the combination of what we know and what we don’t will forge a new image of what we can expect). This. Is. Wrestle. Kingdom. 9! 7: Screen says, Showing in “00:00”, but the previews continue. 7:25: Because there is no god. It’s 7:25, and we still don’t have access to the event. We are on the phone, and they are rebooting our system. Two events in the top 5 of what I wanted to see—the start of the show (the welcoming) and the JR. Tag Match. Either I’m going to see none of it or it’s going to come on and I will have already missed some of the things I wanted to see. 7:26: IT IS ON AND THE FIRST THING I HEAR IS “AND WE JUST SAW A 4-TAG MATCH.” I ORDERED THIS, IN GREAT PART, BECAUSE SHELLEY WAS ON IT AND, OF COURSE, I MISS EXACTLY THE ENTIRETY OF THAT MATCH. Irony. Take 2 7:52: Last night I tried to do a running diary, but three things prevented me: 1.) Missing the 1st match and getting thrown off my game 2.) An 8-man tag and a 6-man tag with too many names that I didn’t know to keep up with while ‘running’ with my diary 3.) I wanted to sit, enjoy, and learn from the show. But, at the same time, I’m not going to let a bad connection with Time Warner Cable and no running diary keep me from writing and posting something. No! This might be a stumbling diary—a fall-down-and-get-back-up of writing—but, dammit, at least there’s going to be something here. There are already enough blank spaces online where WK9 coverage and conversation should have been. This will not be another of those spaces. No, in this space, we will talk New Japan Pro Wrestling; we will talk Global Force Wrestling; we will talk how history was made when Wrestle Kingdom 9 was made available worldwide. I don’t know how the buys will go, nor do I know if I would put money on any other PPV (such as AAA). I’ve been a distant NJPW fan my whole life, but I do hope that this will be the beginning of a 2015 that sees Global Force Wrestling become a company with a weekly place to air and a full-on roster. I hope, just as the NWA had territories, GFW will have partners all across the globe. I hope, as I said to mizfan, that the word ‘Global’ will be the 2015 word of the year when it comes to pro wrestling. As for Wrestle Kingdom 9, while the pace was probably benefited by the opening match that I didn’t get to see, I will say the card dragged in the early-to-middle portions for me. It’s not that it was bad, but the show really started to climb as the night went on, and when it started to climb, it didn’t stop until it reached the pinnacle of PPV pro wrestling experience. Because I don’t know a lot of the guys who worked early-middle and because I didn’t take notes while I was watching, I’m going to gloss over a lot of those matches. This is not to disrespect that portion of the card (as I would watch it again if I had the PPV on-demand), but I would rather write briefly than to write a great deal about things I’m not truly up on. The latter would be more disrespectful to me. So, without further ado, let us sum up the early-middle matches. Match 2 6-Man Tag Team Match Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tomoaki Honma vs. Jeff Jarrett, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi I wasn’t even aware Jeff Jarrett would be working on WK9, but it was interesting to think that he was, for one night, JR’s Vince McMahon. How odd life turns out to be, huh? This was the second match of the night (GFW edition), and it was the second match that was NJPW v. The Bullet Club (The BC’s Young Bucks lost in the opening match, which saw ReDRagon retain their JR tag titles). Honma was the guy to watch in this one. This was not about marvelous in-ring work as much as entertainment. For TNA fans, Honma came off something like Eric Young. We were told that he loses a lot, does a lot of headbutts but usually misses them, and many such things… But, what do you know? He cleared the ring, handled business, HIT HIS HEADBUTT, and won the match for Team NJPW! More of a light, fun match (Jarrett accidentally broke a guitar over a partner’s head). After an 0-2 start, folks had to be wondering if this was the end of the Bullet Club’s run. Match 3 Toru Yano, Marufuji & TMDK vs. Shelton Benjamin, Takashi, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. I’m going to be honest—I don’t remember anything visually about this match. I think I may have been reading, because I do remember some of the call. It was a team NOAH v. Team NJPW deal, I do believe, with Yano, Marufuji & TMDK getting the win. It was fun to hear JR talk about Shelton Benjamin (the little “reunions” this night brought on were quite interesting). He mentioned how Benjamin’s style was different in Japan (less high-flying), and he talked about how Benjamin originally chose pro wrestling over the Olympics. “Pro Wrestling” That was my favorite phrase of the night. JR was embedded with the term ‘entertainment’ for more than 20 years, and it cropped up a few times (don’t know if that was by habit or a way to also appeal to WWE fans), but I rejoiced every time I heard not just the term ‘pro wrestling’ but conversation about what pro wrestling means. At WK9, we heard about pro wrestling in many ways, mostly about how hard-hitting and snug the action can be in Japan. JR continually told an AMAZING story about the 20-second count in NJPW. He said it is to protect the wrestlers. When guys are hitting hard and getting beat up, if they have a 20-count when they roll out of the ring, it gives them time to rest and heal, rather than being forced to roll right back in and risk injury. That kind of talk, conversation that authenticated pro wrestling, got me charged to be watching WK9 and hearing GFW’s Ross and Striker. Speaking of Ross and Striker, Striker was dead-on with information all night. He knows his craft and did his job. The only thing I will say against Striker is that he comes off condescending once and a while and it alienates me from him, but he kept it at a minimum. For JR, it took him a little bit of time to find his rhythm (understandable with the time he’s been away and getting familiar with calling the product), but he got better as the night went on, and JR/Striker got better, and by the end of the night, I felt like I had been in the room with them, like they had been in the room with me, and I was not ready to break the alliance we had formed around this beautiful, intense, hard-hitting, respect-centered thing called pro wrestling. Truly, in case I don’t mention it later, hats off to the commentary team and to Jeff Jarrett for making that happen. Matches 4 & 5 Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe These are a couple of matches that won’t fully get the credit they deserve. Partly because, while I know there are those who geek out for these style matches (Jim Ross and many in the IWC) they aren’t my favorite. I don’t dislike them, and I can quite enjoy them, but they are not my personal favorites. Other thing is I was still pretty salty over missing Alex Shelley’s match, and I was reading C.G. Jung during parts of these matches. Commentators did a great job, especially Jim Ross, of selling Sakuraba/Suzuki. Many references to their trainers, Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson, and how long in the making this fight was. Both matches in this section would include punch-fests, kick-fests, no-selling, and begging for more. Worked-MMA has elements I like, in theory, but it’s difficult for me to escape the worked aspect. So these guys strike and try to submit each other but also fight on the ramp and such. I think this is one that would be enjoyed more fully if I had vested interest. Suzuki submits Sakuraba ultimately and there is a moment between them at the end. Again. Would be easier to enjoy if it meant more to me. For Ishii and Makabe, the narrative helped build this match for me. The fact that Ishii had an injured shoulder—injured since August—but chose not to have any medical attention to get help sort of tells you all you need to know about Ishii and Makabe. Makabe had interesting hair, quite bright, and it’s about the only bright thing in this match. The rest is rugged. Two tough guys beating the hell out of each other. These are the two guys that really begged each other to hit them more (no surgeries but more punches, please). Makabe would get the win with a knee after a hard fight to become the Never Openweight Champ. These matches were good. A slow pace. Strong style. Made a little less appealing, in my opinion, because I feel like the second-to-last match of the card (which we will get to), did some of this better, younger, and faster. I liken these two matches to JR on Wrestle Kingdom. He wasn’t at the pace I prefer him early in the night and he stumbled some before he found his groove. But it’s still JR. Just the same with these matches: I knew there would be better matches and they were a bit slow for my taste, but they were still good matches regardless and both would have been improved for me if I had greater knowledge going in. Take 3 The Continual Climb 1:14: Welp, it’s now Tuesday afternoon, and I just met with my advisor as I plan my final semester as a M.A. student. Now, instead of doing that work, I sit in a Barnes and Noble, about to start day 3 of writing this Running-Tripping-Getting-back-up Diary. The Universe will not prevent this WK9 Response! We are now moving into the heart of the card. Matches 6 through 9 caught my attention and kept my attention. These were the matches that not only made this event worth the money but also proved all the hype (GFW’s and mine) to be accurate. With each match, the card extended in prestige and match quality, and now, I have the privilege of chatting up those matches! Match 6 RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. KENNY OMEGA When Kenny Omega, the challenger in this bout for the JR. Title, came to the ring, Jim Ross made a Brian Pillman reference, and I wanted to buy the comparison. These are times I will remind the audience that I’ve only watched some of these guys once, so some of my responses are instinctual and might would change with consistent exposure. With this one, I will say this: I’m not sure if Kenny Omega is worth the build NJPW is giving him. I’ve not seen him as a character, but he reminds me of a guy you might would see in the WCW Power Plant or late WCW (great body with the face of Van Hammer). He reminds me of a guy who would be named after some sort of energy supply—Nitro or Powerline—and be a jobber back in the day. That, of course, is not fully fair, and one thing I will give him for certain, he can explode out of a run. The way he pushes off gives him a momentum as if a 300-pounder had whipped him into a corner. And his gimmick has potential (whether or not he can pull it off I don’t know). The champion, Ryusuke Taguchi, is not in the best of shape and came off a bit joke-y to me (though we were told that he had been after the Bullet Club, of which Omega is a part, since he was betrayed by Prince Devitt). So, in one way, he is very seriously linked with the struggle against the BC, but his antics in the ring are sometimes a bit light. Taguchi sort of reminds me of Eddy Guerrero before Eddy was great. He went for the 3 amigos, he is good in the ring, but he’s not a full-on star (from the little I saw). Kenny Omega, who had the Young Bucks in his corner, (which JR could not understand why that was permitted) was the feature of this match. This was something of a coming out party for Omega, in that, he went on to win the JR Title, to reclaim glory for a BC that had been losing throughout the night, and he seemed very hyped for a big 2015. Only time will tell how he will shoulder this opportunity. Match 7 DOC GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON v. HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA This match, like all of the tag matches, either *was* rushed or *felt* rushed (as the more guys you put out there in a one-off event, the more difficult it is to take everyone in without multiple watches). The match was not a bad one. In fact, it was good. There was traditional tag wrestling (in a U.S. sense of ‘traditional’), and Gallows and Anderson would spend a good amount of time enforcing their will. Now. Let me say. I am a MASSIVE fan of Gallows. I am also a MASSIVE fan of Aces & Eights, of which Gallows was a part. Most mainstream U.S. WWE fans don’t give Aces the credit they deserve. For my money, Bully Ray had one of the best runs in ANY company in the last TEN YEARS when he represented TNA and Aces & Eights as the champion. I get it, though. When I think of great groups, I don’t think of Evolution or Nexus, because I barely watched when they were around and I have reasons I think both were somewhat cheap (especially Evolution). That doesn’t make me right. If I were to go back and watch, I’m sure I would find reasons they were big (such as launching Orton and Batista, I guess, but I’m not sure they couldn’t have launched other ways). It’s the same with Aces. Most people don’t watch TNA, don’t like it, and not everything that deserves credit outside WWE gets it. Like Gallows. Dude is legit. Has the look. Can talk it and be it. Sort of looked like the Warlord, however, in his face paint. People tell me Anderson is good, too, and Jim Ross compared him (Karl Anderson) to Arn Anderson. Still, in one match, with my prejudices in-tact, I was still most focused on Gallows. The BC members, however, would lose control of the match…and the match. With double team work from Goto and Shibata, the challengers would get the win and add to the woes of the Bullet Club. Match 8 AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito Ah, Naito… We are informed that he has lost at 3 WK events. This is a guy who can go in the ring, but he sort of is fighting this battle against his legacy. Will he be a guy “who can go”, a good hand and assistant to others, or will he put himself over the top by defeating the guy who came straight into NJPW and captured their heavyweight title, AJ Styles. For those who followed TNA, this Bullet Club AJ Styles very much follows the formula of AJ Styles the heel in TNA. Much slower, older, more mature style. Has the added submission in the calf-killer (and thus a methodical style) to balance out the lessening speed/agility (not that he can’t still do it when he wants). Naito used speed while he could, but AJ Styles wisely went after the leg. While this took away from Naito’s style and finisher, it also allowed AJ to plot his way to a calf-killer. And, watch and listen when AJ Styles puts on the calf-killer. JR sells the hell out of it. He tells us to pay attention to AJ’s hands. He says that every time AJ changes position (holding the ankle, the foot, the toe) it changes the location of pain on the opponent. As JR predicts the movement, AJ follows through, adjusting and arranging, and Naito writhes in pain and makes plays for the ropes. Oh, Naito… This is your grand struggle… Will he overcome? Will he make it? Yes, he does. To the ropes. But… there is another move, one that has been causing controversy in the wrestling world, the Styles Clash. AJ, who is positioned on the second rope, catches Naito, and applies that damn dangerous move from the second rope. To get the win. This is a big win for AJ and the Bullet Club, as its their last match on the card and it elevates AJ back into the top few in NJPW. And, if you listen to JR while AJ is on his way to the ring, Ross made AJ Styles sound more legit in one ring entrance than TNA may have done in 10 years. (With the references to the class he's in with his NJPW and NWA title reigns.) (Ah, Naito…) Tuesday 1:51… Take 4 It is now 5:58. I had to take a break to a.) work on some schoolwork and b.) clear my mind for the AMAZING opportunity I have to write about the final two matches of Wrestle Kingdom 9. I seriously consider this a privilege of the highest order to have the space, audience, and GOOD SENSE to watch this show and write about these two matches. In fact, did you know that when the Old Testament Prophet wrote, “In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple,” it was actually misinterpreted. The correct translation goes like this:“In the year of the GFW-NJPW birth I saw Ibushi, Nakamura, Okada, and Tanahashi sitting on top of the wrestling world, lofty and exalted, and their insane wrestling ability and storytelling prowess filled the Tokyo Dome.” Yeah, so a little off on the original translation. The prophet actually saw into 2015 and saw the glorious experience that was waiting for those of us who had the GOOD SENSE to order Wrestle Kingdom 9. These two matches set the bar for finishing a PPV in 2015. Match 9 IWGP Intercontinental Championship Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi This is the match that my former colleague on the now defunct “IMPACTheRevolution” said was the match he was most looking forward to. When he said it, I had never before seen either Ibushi or Nakamura. When he said it, he put the emphasis on Nakamura. When he said it, I didn’t yet know that when I saw the match my mind would actually be blown. How do I explain Nakamura? The mere presence of this man teaches you why Jeff Hardy has to be CALLED the charismatic enigma. Nakamura doesn’t need the title, nor the commentators to create his state of ambiguity, his state of left + right, this + that. Nakamura is a man whose presence, whose image, whose dress, stance, movement and eyes, will tell a 1000 stories in one glance. I could imagine a room full of strangers being taken into a room to see Nakamura and each person leaving with a completely different narrative of what s/he saw. This is a man of blurred lines and contradictions. Nakamura is King of Strong Style, yet he idolizes Michael Jackson. Nakamura is rugged and destructive, yet has a Hollywood flair about him and, according to the tweets I’ve seen, the ladies fancy him quite attractive. He could be a movie star, I’d suppose, a better Johnny Depp, who could do a lot more damage than the would-be pirate. This guy is lucid and hazed-out. Figure that one out. His opponent, Ibushi, is sort of the odd man out when it comes to the final two matches. The other 3—Tanahashi, Okada, and Nakamura—are the guys who carry NJPW (with guys like AJ Styles and others trading the role of the 4th from time-to-time). Ibushi, we are told, was out with a concussion. Thus, it is all uphill for Ibushi. Simply to be included in the final two matches and to challenge for Nakamura’s Intercontinental Champsionship is no small task. And Ibushi, though he didn’t blow me away with his look, (next to Nakamura, few would), he got it done in the ring. Ibushi rose up and gave it to Nakamura. These two beat the hell out of each other, with Ibushi getting the best of the exchanges. Ibushi can fly but he is trying to make his way in the heavyweight division now, so he also had to stand man-to-man, to kick and punch, to give and take very, very stiff shots. And he did it well. To see the drug or alcohol looking daze of Nakamura when he was down was money in itself. The commentators built up Ibushi’s push, his dominance, and yet… somehow you knew (not during the well-told match, only before and after) that no matter what Ibushi did Nakamura would not be bested. These two stiffed each other. They stood toe-to-toe. They hit each other with everything they had. But Nakamura had more and he won the match. I got the impression that Nakamura is barely there with his opponent or the fans. Nakamura is in a world that belongs solely to Nakamura. His haze is our pleasure-viewing. This is a man who should have taken his energy to WWE for one reason: Above Brock Lesnar, he should have challenged for the Undertaker’s streak. I don’t think the Undertaker, especially in his final years, could withstand Strong Style. But goddammit, I would have liked to see him try. Match 10 IWGP Heavyweight Championship Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada On Twitter, I compared Nakamura/Ibushi to Steamboat/Savage. Steamboat and Savage didn’t have to go on nonexistent social media to say they were going to steal the show at WM3. They simply were so big in their talents that they maxed out the IC title space. In other words, they filled the entire capacity of the level they were on. That is what Nakamura/Ibushi did. With the high-flying, the MMA style, and the storytelling, I thought they might well steal the show from the main event. Even with the history and majesty of Okada v. Tanahashi, with the record Matt Striker reminded us of (3-2-1, Okada), I thought the IC title match might well steal the thunder from the main event. I thought wrong. For a one-off PPV, sometimes you get moments that can truly happen…only once… One of those, for people like me who watched the hype videos, read the Tweets, and kept an eye on all the pictures coming out in the days before Wrestle Kingdom 9, was discovering that when JR met Okada, they hit it off. These are those special moments nobody can predict. These are the moments that build that Jeff Jarrett legacy that the IWC needs to catch up to. For the 63-year-old JR to meet 27-year-old Okada before the Tokyo Dome show, for the two of them to hit it off, that never would have happened without the GFW-NJPW connection. That is the kind of moment that makes me want to see the word ‘Global’ be the word of the year in pro wrestling in 2015. JR’s connection with Okada showed in the booth. JR hyped the kid. Namely: his dropkick, which he called the best in the business. (It is.) JR said he asked Okada if we would see the dropkick at Wrestle Kingdom 9. (And we saw it so late in the match that I truly believed we wouldn’t see it.) I say all of this to try to tell you about the wind that seemed to be at the back of Okada when the heavyweight title match began. This is not to take anything away from Tanahashi. He is the heavyweight champion and the man who brought NJPW to new places. And yet. Between the commentary and the start of the match, Okada seemed every bit of 27 and Tanahashi every bit of 38. Okada dominated. Stood above the champion. And Tanahashi did little to fight back. There was a time when the commentators said Okada was playing with Tanahashi. That he sensed that he had broken the champion. And yet. People don’t become champions by being so easily broken. They especially don’t become the face of a wrestling company. Tanahashi, who, according to the announcers, came over to JR the night before and asked to take a picture (very humble for the man who carries a company on his back) came back in this match in the most humble of ways. It was a quiet return but an effective one. Filled, of course, with frog splashes. (And a ridiculous dive off the top rope, beyond the outside, over the barricades, onto Okdada): A “Wrestle Kingdom moment”. Tanahashi would come back and win, come back and retain the title. And you wondered, through the commentary and the visuals of the match, if Tanahashi barely slipped by, if this was the last big win he’d get on that stage (Kobe winning a 5th ring when he’d never get close to a 6th, if you will). You wondered if the page had turned regardless of the win. But Tanahashi, who grabbed the mic, told a different story: he let Okada, who was exiting in tears, know that he was still the face—still the ace—of NJPW. And Tanahashi, by the demands of the fans, had someone hand him his invisible guitar. He put the strap on his shoulder and jammed out for his fans. Here 38 became better than 27, as you could feel the history of Tanahashi, the history of Tanahashi and the fans, the history of Tanahashi and the big stage, in his very stance. Like Shawn Michaels after he returned in 2002, when he didn’t feel the need to spring about in every motion, but could simply stand still before the fans and clap back at them, Tanahashi has a power and draw with the fans with the simplest of motions. He still owns a high percentage of the fan base. And Okada. What can I say about a man who cries his way away from the ring on the biggest night of the year? I’m not sure we could handle that in the United States. Remember the Dawson Leery cry-face that so many mocked? (Looking at you Cult.) I’m not sure we could handle it here. But it was an absolute beautiful and awe-inspiring visual. Knowing that the same 27-year-old who had stood and talked with JR, who had dominated the champion, who had enjoyed the very fruit of youth and prime and passion, was the same defeated 27-year-old who let all those positive emotions burst out the same in loss. To hear Jim Ross and Matt Striker get better as the night went on. To know the things that many WWE fans (especially newer fans) may never know, such as over-scripted product is not always best. I would rather watch two announcers make some mistakes and take time to get adjusted, because how much better when they hit their stride? You know how a product feels authentic? It’s when it IS authentic. In an over-scripted, overly safe product, there will be fewer mistakes. And, too, fewer rewards. An over-scripted product will keep an even keel, but a product let loose will have some lows, but the highs will reach far higher, and the emotions (truer) will come across as real. To watch Wrestle Kingdom 9, to hear Jim Ross and Matt Striker, to see the prevailing champion and the in-tears challenger, was to remind me of times I loved NWA, WCW, and TNA. Times I got to love pro wrestling. Because it was rough around the edges. Because it was authentic. Because it was real. Because so much was on the line. I stayed in that room a few minutes longer than the show. I was in my parent’s house. The house that, once upon a time, made me a wrestling fan. And I was, again, for four hours, a fan. After, I turned the TV off and headed home, because real-life beckoned, but, for that night, I remembered that “real-life” is not the only place where real things happen
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