Invasion Attack 2015: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

KUSHIDA, Alex Shelley, Captain New Japan, Yuji Nagata and Yohei Komatsu defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Manabu Nakanishi and Sho Tanaka in 8:14 to open Invasion Attack 2015. Five wrestlers on each side made this an unusual ten-person combination for the April Ryogoku card. WrestleFile's C+ / 6.5 places the opener among the short supporting bouts rather than the day's title-changing highlights. The outcome did not award a junior or heavyweight championship to the winning team. Roppongi Vice's junior tag-title win and The Kingdom's heavyweight tag-title win occurred in later, separate contests, while AJ Styles kept the main heavyweight singles belt in the final.

Tencozy, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima, teamed with Tomoaki Honma to defeat Bullet Club's Tama Tonga, Cody Hall and Yujiro Takahashi in 9:26. The match identifies a six-person result between the ten-person opener and the upcoming junior tag championship contest. It was not itself a title match: WrestleFile assigns C+ / 6.5 and records a victory for Tenzan, Kojima and Honma. Bullet Club would have other results later in the evening, including losing the IWGP heavyweight tag titles when The Kingdom beat Gallows and Anderson. That championship loss should not be transferred backward into this supporting faction tag result.

Roppongi Vice, Beretta and Rocky Romero, defeated reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Matt and Nick Jackson, The Young Bucks, in 12:33 to win the belts. WrestleFile assigns B- / 7.1, and the championship transfer is one of the major concrete outcomes at Invasion Attack 2015. Roppongi Vice entered as challengers; the Young Bucks did not retain. This was the junior *team* championship, distinct from the junior singles belt defended by Kenny Omega against Mascara Dorada in the following match. The event's other team-title change came when The Kingdom won the heavyweight IWGP tag championship from Gallows and Anderson later on the card.

Kenny Omega defeated Mascara Dorada in 12:59 to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on April 5, 2015. His B- / 7.1 defense sat directly after Roppongi Vice had taken the separate IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from the Young Bucks. Omega entered with the individual belt and kept it, so there was no singles junior title change here. The two adjacent results provide contrasting division history: new champions in the team category, incumbent champion still ruling the singles category. As a selective replay, this match belongs with the title-focused portion of the program without being confused with The Kingdom's later heavyweight team championship win.

The Kingdom, Matt Taven and Michael Bennett, defeated Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson in 9:41 to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. WrestleFile scores the title switch C+ / 6.9, a relatively modest assessment for a historically important belt outcome. Gallows and Anderson were defending the heavyweight IWGP team championship; they did not retain it at Invasion Attack 2015. Earlier the Young Bucks had also lost the junior tag titles to Roppongi Vice, producing two separate team-title changes on this card. The singles championships worked differently: Kenny Omega retained the junior belt and AJ Styles would retain the heavyweight belt in the main event.

Tetsuya Naito, Hirooki Goto and Togi Makabe defeated CHAOS's Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI in 13:49. The two three-person groups give the middle-to-late portion of Invasion Attack 2015 its own factional matchup, but no title was contested in this recorded result. WrestleFile rated it C+ / 6.8. Nakamura's presence should not be misread as an IWGP Intercontinental Championship transfer on this date; this was a six-person team contest. The card's title changes happened through Roppongi Vice beating the Young Bucks and The Kingdom beating Gallows and Anderson, whereas AJ Styles later defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kota Ibushi.

Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata in 10:51 in the seventh match of Invasion Attack 2015. This was a standard two-on-two result and WrestleFile's C+ / 6.8 recognizes its place as a supporting match before Okada's singles contest and the AJ Styles-Kota Ibushi title finale. Tanahashi's appearance does not mean he was defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship here: AJ Styles held that belt and successfully retained in the final match. For historical records, the notable pairing is Yano with Sakuraba against Tanahashi with Shibata, and the winning team should be credited without attaching an unreported title stake.

Kazuchika Okada defeated Bad Luck Fale in 15:59 to take the eighth match of Invasion Attack 2015. The pairing was a singles result outside the night's championship contests, and WrestleFile's B- / 7.1 places it just below the B+ title main event. Fale's previous 2014 Intercontinental championship win belongs to Dominion 2014, not to an outcome in this April 2015 match. Okada did not win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at this event; AJ Styles kept that title by defeating Kota Ibushi in the following contest. Viewing the Okada-Fale match as a distinct program prevents mixing different title histories just because established heavyweight contenders share a card.

AJ Styles defeated Kota Ibushi in 27:01 to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the main event of Invasion Attack 2015. The defending champion won, so the heavyweight singles title did not change hands. WrestleFile gave the match B+ / 8.4, the strongest evaluation among the nine bouts. The event's actual title transfers came in the tag divisions: Roppongi Vice beat the Young Bucks for the junior team belts, and The Kingdom beat Gallows and Anderson for the heavyweight team belts. Kenny Omega successfully defended the junior singles title against Mascara Dorada as another separate result. Styles' retention closes a card whose most consequential title activity was not limited to its main-event belt.