ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds (2015)

Background

On January 4, 2015, at their Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome show, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced that it would for the second year in a row co-produce an event with Ring of Honor (ROH) in May. At that point, no specific dates were announced and only the United States was named as a location.^[9][10] However, on February 25, ROH sent out a press release, announcing three co-produced events, as opposed to two shows in 2014, with War of the Worlds '15 taking place on May 13 in Philadelphia and Global Wars '15 on May 15 and 16 in Toronto, Canada.^[11][12][13] On March 7, War of the Worlds '15 was also expanded to a two-day event, taking place at the 2300 Arena over May 12 and 13.^[1][2] This was done due to the May 13 event quickly selling out.^[3] Both nights ended up being sold out in advance.^[4] ROH began announcing the NJPW wrestlers taking part in the events on April 1, starting with Hiroshi Tanahashi.^[14] Over the next nine days, ROH announced the remaining NJPW participants; Kazuchika Okada,^[15] Jyushin Thunder Liger,^[16] Tetsuya Naito,^[17] Takaaki Watanabe,^[18] Kushida,^[19] Gedo,^[20] and finally Shinsuke Nakamura.^[21] On April 16, ROH announced that the Bullet Club trio of A.J. Styles, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson would also be taking part in the War of the Worlds '15 events.^[22] The following day, ROH put additional standing room tickets on sale for the two events.^[23] On April 20, ROH announced all eight matches for the first night of War of the Worlds '15.^[24] All eight matches for the second night were announced the following day.^[25] Also announced were pre-show autograph sessions for May 12 and 13, which would be attended by both NJPW and ROH wrestlers taking part in the tour.^[26]

Storylines

War of the Worlds '15 featured eight professional wrestling matches each night that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.^[27]

Due to featuring wrestlers from two different promotions, the events focused less on storyline rivalries and more on interpromotional matchups. However, one storyline introduced between the Bullet Club and The Kingdom stables was built across the two promotions.^[28] The rivalry between the two stables started on March 1, 2015, at ROH's 13th Anniversary Show, where The Kingdom's Matt Taven and Michael Bennett defeated Bullet Club's Karl Anderson to win a three-way tag team match, after Anderson's stablemate Doc Gallows was unable to make the event due to travel issues.^[29] This led to a match on April 5 at NJPW's Invasion Attack 2015, where Taven and Bennett defeated Anderson and Gallows to capture the IWGP Tag Team Championship.^[30] The rivalry continued throughout the next month and came to include Maria Kanellis and Amber Gallows, the wives of Bennett and Gallows, respectively.^[31] Anderson and Gallows were absent from War of the Worlds '15, working only the Global Wars '15 events,^[22] leaving A.J. Styles and The Young Bucks to enter the rivalry.^[28] War of the Worlds '15 marked the in-ring return of the third member of The Kingdom, Adam Cole, following an injury break.^[25] Cole was originally only announced for the second night, but ended up being revealed as Styles' mystery opponent on the first night.^[32] The first night featured a three-way non-title match between three sets of tag team champions as Bennett and Taven took on The Young Bucks, the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, and ROH World Tag Team Champions The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian).^[33]

The second night featured the only title match of the two events, which saw Jay Briscoe defend the ROH World Championship against Bobby Fish.^[25] Prior to the title match, Briscoe had gone over two years without being pinned or submitted in ROH; the last time he was pinned was on March 2, 2013, when Fish pinned him in a tag team match, where he and Kyle O'Reilly captured the ROH World Tag Team Championship from Jay and his brother Mark.^[34]