King of Pro-Wrestling 2015: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, KUSHIDA, Máscara Dorada and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Jay White, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu in 8:47 to open King of Pro-Wrestling 2015 at Ryōgoku. WrestleFile graded the ten-participant junior and young-lion meeting C+ / 6.5, a supporting result before the event's various title defenses. FinJuice comprised Finlay and Robinson on the losing side, joined by White, Tanaka and Komatsu; they were not the successful five-man unit. KUSHIDA's participation here should also be distinguished from Kenny Omega's later defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight singles title against Matt Sydal. No championship transfer is recorded through the opening ten-person match.

Tomoaki Honma defeated YOSHI-HASHI in 8:55 in the second match of King of Pro-Wrestling on October 12, 2015. WrestleFile assigned C+ / 6.5 to the singles result, a supporting score well below the B+ saved for Okada-Styles in the heavyweight finale. Honma was the winner and YOSHI-HASHI the opponent, with no title or future Dome challenge certificate attached to their result. Honma and YOSHI-HASHI also appeared among bigger rosters on other New Japan cards; that history should not overwrite this specific singles pairing. The Tokyo Dome rights defense on this show belonged to Tanahashi versus Naito much later.

Tencozy's Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima joined Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata to defeat Kota Ibushi, Hirooki Goto, Captain New Japan and Katsuyori Shibata in 12:12 in King of Pro-Wrestling 2015's third match. WrestleFile graded the four-against-four C+ / 6.8. Each side contained four distinct wrestlers; this was not a two-person Tencozy title defense merely because a known tag team led the winning team. Ibushi, Goto, Captain New Japan and Shibata were the losing quartet. The championship-changing result later in the card was Tomohiro Ishii beating Togi Makabe for the separate NEVER Openweight singles belt, so no title should be attributed to this eight-person opener.

Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly, reDRagon, defeated challengers Beretta and Rocky Romero of Roppongi Vice in 15:21 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at King of Pro-Wrestling 2015. WrestleFile gave the fourth match B- / 7.1. Fish and O'Reilly entered as the defending champions and kept their junior tag belts; this was not Roppongi Vice's title acquisition or the separate IWGP Junior singles championship. Kenny Omega would defend that singles title against Matt Sydal in the next match. The two team names and championship lineage allow 2015 junior history to be reconstructed without importing Roppongi Vice's later title switch from a different year.

Kenny Omega defeated Matt Sydal in 15:26 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in the fifth match at King of Pro-Wrestling 2015. WrestleFile scored it B- / 7.1, the same as the preceding reDRagon-Roppongi Vice junior tag defense but involving a separate singles title. Omega was the incumbent junior heavyweight champion, and Sydal the challenger. This contest did not install a new titleholder or decide the heavyweight belt that Kazuchika Okada later retained over AJ Styles in the main event. Distinguishing Omega's 2015 junior title defense from his later tenure as heavyweight champion keeps both participant chronology and divisional outcomes accurate.

Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba of CHAOS defeated Bullet Club's Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Bad Luck Fale in 7:03 at King of Pro-Wrestling 2015. WrestleFile assigned C / 6.3 to the six-person match, among the lower saved scores on the October 12 card. Nakamura's partners were Yano and Sakuraba; the Bullet Club opposing three were Gallows, Anderson and Fale. AJ Styles challenged Kazuchika Okada for the heavyweight singles championship separately in the final and failed to take the title. The sixth-match Bullet Club loss did not determine Styles' contest or transfer one of the documented junior or NEVER singles championships.

Tomohiro Ishii defeated defending champion Togi Makabe in 17:54 to WIN the NEVER Openweight Championship at King of Pro-Wrestling 2015. WrestleFile gave this seventh bout B- / 7.4, placing it among the principal historical outcomes of the Ryōgoku card. Ishii entered as challenger and displaced Makabe; this was the clear secondary championship switch of the final sequence. Hiroshi Tanahashi's later victory over Tetsuya Naito defended a FUTURE Tokyo Dome heavyweight challenge certificate rather than the NEVER belt. Kazuchika Okada then retained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship over AJ Styles. Reading all three results together prevents the day's single actual title transfer from being mistaken for three new champions.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tetsuya Naito in 19:55 to preserve the Tokyo Dome Challenge Rights Certificate to a future IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at King of Pro-Wrestling 2015. WrestleFile graded the penultimate contest B / 7.8. Tanahashi's victory maintained a right to challenge later; it did NOT award him Kazuchika Okada's reigning heavyweight championship on October 12. Okada still had to defend against AJ Styles immediately afterward and retained. Earlier, Ishii had taken the NEVER Openweight singles title from Makabe, the night's genuine titleholder change. These separate stakes make the penultimate match historically useful even without a new belt changing hands.

Kazuchika Okada defeated AJ Styles in 30:15 to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at King of Pro-Wrestling 2015 on October 12 at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. WrestleFile graded their main event B+ / 8.4, the strongest mark of the nine-match card. Okada entered as defending champion and ended as champion, which contrasts with 2014's same-named event where Hiroshi Tanahashi took the IWGP title from Styles. In this 2015 edition, Tanahashi defeated Tetsuya Naito to defend his Tokyo Dome future-challenge certificate, not to take Okada's belt. The night's actual singles championship switch belonged to Tomohiro Ishii beating Togi Makabe for the NEVER Openweight title.