Wrestle Kingdom III was the third annual Wrestle Kingdom event put on by NJPW, in their traditional slot at the beginning of the year. Wrestle Kingdom II took place on January 4, 2009, and continued the companies intent on building the Wrestle Kingdom brand for their annual Tokyo Dome show.
This show was the only Wrestle Kingdom appearance for former WWE Champion Kevin Nash, who wrestled alongside former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle on the card. It also marks the first Wrestle Kingdom appearance for Kazuchika Okada, who wrestled in a six-man tag team match before the show began.
The main event of the show saw the future and the past clash, as Keiji Mutoh (also known as “The Great Muta) facing off with Hiroshi Tanahashi, with the coveted IWGP Heavyweight Championship – a belt both men held numerous times – on the line in that fight.
This page will detail the star ratings for Wrestle Kingdom III. This will detail Dave Meltzer’s star ratings from the Wrestling Observer, as well as match ratings from Cagematch, and our own star rating too. Any matches Dave Meltzer did not give a rating for is labelled “Not Rated”.
Milano Collection A.T., Minoru and Taichi Ishikari vs Kazuchika Okada, Mitsuhide Hirasawa and Nobuo Yoshihashi
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – Not Rated
- Atletifo Rating – Not Rated
Místico, Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi vs Averno, Gedo and Jado
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – 6.38
- Atletifo Rating – 2 Stars
Juushin Thunder Liger and Takuma Sano defeated Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – 6.14
- Atletifo Rating – 2.5 Stars
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) vs No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro)
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – 7.22
- Atletifo Rating – 3 Star
Tiger Mask defeated Low Ki
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – Not Rated
- Atletifo Rating – 1.5 Stars
Legend (Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Masahiro Chono and Riki Choshu) vs G.B.H. (Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson, Takashi Iizuka and Tomohiro Ishii)
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – Not Rated
- Atletifo Rating – 2 Stars
Yuji Nagata vs Masato Tanaka
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – 8.32
- Atletifo Rating – 3.5 Stars
Jun Akiyama defeated Manabu Nakanishi
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – Not Rated
- Atletifo Rating – 2.5 Stars
Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray) vs The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano)
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – Not Rated
- Atletifo Rating – 2 Stars
Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto vs Mitsuharu Misawa and Takashi Sugiura
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – 7.65
- Atletifo Rating – 3 Stars
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Keiji Mutoh
- Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Not Rated
- Cagematch Rating – 7.63
- Atletifo Rating – 3.5 Stars