8 Reasons New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 9 Is Must-Watch

1. English Commentary By Jim Ross & Matt Striker

Jim Ross has more than his fair share of detractors at this point, but it piqued everyone's interest to see how well he would handle calling Japanese wrestling. To his eternal credit, he came to Tokyo prepared, and he called the action as if he had been working with New Japan for years. He knew the back stories behind the wrestlers, matches and feuds. He knew the names of moves. He even had little stories and anecdotes, such as Togi Makabe's connection to Bruiser Brody, on hand and ready to go. Combine that with Matt Striker, who is a well-known "wrestling nerd" and a fan of the Japanese promotions, and the commentary was much better than most expected. Sure, there were some pronunciation issues for certain names, but honestly, that would be expected of just about anyone who is handling names foreign to their culture and heritage. Wrestle Kingdom needed some English commentary to help reel in all of those potential viewers who have heard so much about Japanese wrestling, but don't understand the language so they've never been able to follow along. Sure, you can watch the matches and take them at face value, but things lose a bit of luster when you don't know why so-and-so is fighting so-and-so. JR and Striker came in, put names to the faces, so to speak, and helped to tell stories and put the product over, which was refreshing, especially for those who are just used to the WWE style of commentary. Moving forward, with all of the praise that WK has gotten, it would behoove Global Force Wrestling to try and continue the working relationship with New Japan and "present" their pay-per-views on occasion, complete with English commentary, even if it isn't with JR and Striker, although those two helped to make for an enjoyable listening and viewing experience here.