Kohei Sato
The 2009 Fire Festival was held from July 25 to August 8 over seven shows. It featured ten participants in two blocks, including outside participation from Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Daisuke Sekimoto and Apache Army's Tetsuhiro Kuroda. Both blocks ended in a tie for first place after the group stage; a four-way tie in Block A between Kohei Sato, Akebono, Ikuto Hidaka and Shinjiro Otani, and a three-way tie in Block B between Ryouji Sai, Masato Tanaka and Daisuke Sekimoto. This marked the fourth year in a row that such a tie has occurred. Both ties would be decided in a three- or four-way match on the night of the tournament. Sato and Sai won their respective matches, and Sai would go on to win the final.