Jeff Jarrett Speaks On WK-9 and Future of GFW

After speaking with Global Force Wrestling (the company in charge of promoting New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 9) founder Jeff Jarrett in preview of one of the biggest events of the year, Daily DDT caught up with him again to hear his thoughts on it, as well as the future of GFW itself.

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How would you say WK-9 went as a whole?

Obviously going into it there was a tremendous amount of hype. With the event being in an arena as large as the Tokyo Dome, an announcer like Jim Ross and it being GFW’s first show, expectations were through the roof. Along with that, with it being our first show, going in you never know what’s going to happen. In my opinion, it blew my expectations away. From top to bottom for there to be a 4-hour show that continued to build on every level, it couldn’t have done a better job. I’m very happy and all of the credit goes to the wrestlers and members of New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Throughout the broadcast, both Matt Striker and Jim Ross were mentioning other promotions (WWE, ROH, PWG, etc.) was that intentional?

Absolutely. I said it going into the event; GFW is going to have a 180-degree different promotion of other companies. We’re going to respect the history of different promotions as well as mention what they have going on right now.

What was your personal favorite match on the card?

Nakamura vs. Ibushi. Not to take one bit away from any of the other matches on the card, but it would be 1 and 1a. Nakamura’s match, his presence, the incredible entrance that he made and him being the king of strong style just all came together. To go from that theatrical entrance and to shift gears and go into kick your ass mode, that match was very intense and very physical. 1A would have to be the main event. To go on after as strong as a card as that, it was incredible. The emotion and drama and physicality were truly a sight to see.

How did it feel to get back in the ring?

It’s something that I’ve done my whole life. I’m in 28^th year and it was really an honor to go in the Tokyo Dome. It was good to be able to get in the ring with Kojima and Tenzan (two of my opponents). For the non-Japanese fans, I don’t think people realize how big of stars that they are.

”I don’t think we could have asked for a better result for bringing a product internationally.” – Jeff Jarrett

What were some of the problems that you encountered at WK-9 and how are you going to adjust so they don’t happen again?

This was unchartered territory. Now, 96 hours after the event, if we were going to have an issue or problem it was that there was so much demand for the event that they were caught off guard but they corrected it quickly. I looked at the refund numbers on Flipps and it was less than 1%. There was an issue, but they fixed it. There were small things and most of it is probably just me being a perfectionist, but there’s no need to discuss it because it would paint an unfair picture for what was an unbelievable event.

Replay for Wrestle Kingdom 9 can be found on http://globalforcewrestling.com/wk9replay/.

What are some big events that GFW has coming up?

I will release that information when GFW thinks the time is right, it will be coming. We’re gathering data and were promoting the replays of WK-9. The replay numbers are coming in and it’s going well. If for whatever reason you didn’t get a chance to purchase it, it’s really must-see. Coming into this everyone believed this was a can’t-miss event and in the words of Jim Ross, by golly it was.

What impact do you think the success of WK-9 is going to have on GFW going forward?

I don’t think we could have asked for a better result for bringing a product internationally. We’ve gotten massive feedback on how good the bell-to-bell action was. We couldn’t have asked for a better result. We set the bar high for ourselves moving forward.

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Daily DDT Interview: Jeff Jarrett Speaks On WK-9 and Future of GFW

By Brian Rzeppa | Jan 8, 2015